


Gravity Rises: Nightwalkers [Episode Five]

by BrightnessWings19



Series: Gravity Rises Season One [5]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gravity Rises, Episode Five, Gen, Sorophora, slightly different interpretation of Gravity Rises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-11 00:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7867354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightnessWings19/pseuds/BrightnessWings19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pacifica summons the dream demon known as Bill Cipher, and only Mabel and Dipper can defeat him.</p><p>[Parallel to: Dreamscaperers]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Gravity Rises AU originally created by Sorophora. While I did not create these characters, I have put some of my own details and twists into this series and therefore consider this work (but not the AU) my own.
> 
> Work originally posted on Wattpad.
> 
> When commenting on this work, please do not swear.

_“What do I need to summon Bill Cipher?”_

Pacifica Pleasure sat, prim and perfect, on a straight-backed chair on the stage of the Tent of Telepathy. The audience was empty, folding chairs in various states of organization around the dirt floor. Pacifica was alone, the only sound a faint rustling off stage left.

Even though there was no one around to see her, Pacifica remained picture perfect. It was force of habit, but her need to look pristine had increased dramatically lately, after spending a day watching herself from the outside, clumsily maneuvered by a teen boy inhabiting it.

She had taken many long showers after that.

The rustling off to her left stopped, and footfalls replaced it, the deliberate sounds of someone climbing up stairs. “I got them, Miss Pleasure,” a voice said moments later. A stagehand, dressed in common jeans and a red t-shirt—which clashed horribly with her dusty blonde hair—emerged from offstage holding a cardboard box. “A dozen wax candles. If you don’t mind me asking,” she said as she put the box on the ground next to Pacifica, “why do you need them?”

“I do mind your asking,” Pacifica replied haughtily. “How do you expect me to carry this box by myself?”

She could easily send the stagehand away and levitate it with her amulet—no way she was lifting it and getting that dust all over her outfit—but this _was_ what the girl was paid for.

The stagehand sighed and bent down again, her simple ponytail splaying across her shoulders. “Where do you need it, _Miss_?” she asked.

“Go put it in my trailer out of the way,” Pacifica ordered.

The stagehand did as asked, but Pacifica thought she saw a slight eyeroll. She narrowed her eyes as the stagehand retreated and activated her amulet.

The power was low, and the purple smoke that sprang up by the stagehand’s head wafted lazily around it, words and images appearing in a various levels of clarity. One phrase stood out from the rest:

_Spoiled brat_.

Pacifica sniffed. No different from the other Tent of Telepathy employees. They’d been forced to follow Pacifica across the country to this town, and none were very happy about that. But no matter. Their pithy thoughts had no value.

_“What do I need to summon Bill Cipher?”_

_“Are you sure you want to?”_

_“Positive.”_

Pacifica had the candles. Gideon had the incantation. What else did she need?

_“Summoning Bill isn’t something you do on a whim. And once he comes, he’s rather hard to get rid of.”_

_“Good. Then I can use him more than once.”_

Gideon had promised to be her partner, so his arguments were only half-hearted.

A dozen candles, the correct incantation. . .

And a sacrifice.

_“You know the area better than I. Which townspeople are expendable?”_

_“Not_ that _kind of sacrifice. Something related to the person you’re summoning for. And no death needed.”_

_“Oh.”_

_“A picture of Stanford Pines should work well enough.”_

_“Stanford?”_

_“Of course. You’re summoning Bill to enter his mind, aren’t you?”_

It was an interesting situation. Pacifica wanted nothing more than revenge on the heinous Mabel Pines, Ruiner of Relationships, Concealer of Concoctions. But in order to do that, she needed to steal Stanford Pines’ property, the deed of which could only be found in his mind. Or a break-in, but summoning a demon to get the information needed was _far_ more stylish.

So, she needed some sort of sacrifice pertaining to Stanford and her intentions.

Pacifica stood up and carried herself off the stage and down the back way—she would never walk on that dirt floor when she didn’t have to. This mobile circus tent was a far cry from the stages in the big cities. She had actually thrown a tantrum when she found out about it, if she recalled correctly. Pacifica Pleasure was no _circus act_.

But, returning to Gravity Rises and its magical forest was too good of an opportunity to pass up. And look where it had gotten her! New alliances, new true loves, new enemies. . . One didn’t really have a _purpose_ unless they had someone to destroy. And ruining the acting careers of her nemeses got old after a while.

Pacifica reached her trailer with a faint smile on her face as she recalled the day she destroyed hit singer Rea’s reputation. The memory faded, however, as her eyes turned to the clothes laid out on her small bed.

_I’ll do you one better than a picture, Gideon._

It had been a while since she had committed a robbery.


	2. Chapter 2

Mabel ran through the Mystery Museum gift shop, nearly knocking over a little old lady looking at stuffed griffins. After some  _"I'm sorry"_ s and " _you're fine"_ s, she was off again, dashing over to the checkout counter after a quick scan for Ford. Her great uncle was nowhere to be seen, so she had no problems with slapping the big burgundy book in her arms onto the table with a  _thud_.

Dipper, sitting behind the counter, jumped, along with Robbie and the first few people in the checkout line. "Ow, Mabel, that's loud!"

"You're loud all the time," she shot back.

"Yeah but not. . . in. . . public." His voice trailed off as he realized he absolutely was loud in public. All the time.

Mabel smirked at her twin before turning to an expression of excitement. "Okay, but Dipper, look at this!" she said, stabbing a finger at the open Journal. "There's a Bottomless Pit in the forest, and F—" she paused and glanced at Robbie, "the Author would throw stuff in and sometimes it would come out, and sometimes it would be gone forever, and he couldn't find any correlation—"

"Sometimes," Robbie interrupted, checking something out to a tourist and not looking at Mabel, "I find it fascinating that the two of you can both speak at a mile a minute."

Mabel flushed, but pressed on, keeping her eyes on her twin. "I found an old paper with F—the Author's trials on it, and I think I found the secret to the Pit!"

Dipper was wearing his I-have-no-idea-what's-going-on-but-I'm-going-to-look-excited-because-Mabel-does face. He probably thought Mabel couldn't see through it, too. "So what is it?"

"Lunar cycles," Mabel said triumphantly. "He's mentioned them before in relation to Portal Potties—"

"To  _what now_?" Robbie asked, glancing over at them as he put money in the till. "What  _is_  that book, anyway?"

"U-um," Mabel stuttered. "I-i-it's—"

"It's this crazy book about supernatural stuff!" Dipper blurted. Mabel shot him a death glare when Robbie wasn't looking, but the twin winked in return.

"Sounds like there's some interesting stuff in there," Robbie said, sounding amused.

"There is!" Dipper said. "Mabel loves it because she's way into magic stuff. Sometimes she even thinks it's real."

Mabel caught on then. "It is!" she protested.

Dipper shrugged and gave Robbie a  _told ya so_  look. Mabel frowned, not enjoying being the scapegoat of this little fib.

Robbie looked between Mabel and Dipper, and then laughed. "You kids are pretty—"

"Excuse me, sir," said a voice cracked with age. "Can I get this griffin with the head of a panda?"

While Robbie turned to deal with the old lady—the one Mabel had ran into a few minutes before—Mabel leaned towards Dipper, jabbing a finger at the Journal and speaking in a conspiratorial whisper. "I can't be sure until I test it myself," she said, "but I'm almost positive things are more likely to reappear around a full moon."

"Wouldn't Ford have figured that out himself?" Dipper asked, forgetting his excited act. "I mean he's been doing all sorts of boring stuff like that for years, hasn't he?"

Mabel gave him a withering look. She liked it better when he pretended to be interested. "For whatever reason, Ford lost or got rid of the Journal. He probably wouldn't want to restart all his calculations. Anyway, the correlation is faint, but there's going to be a lunar eclipse tonight, so just imagine—"

"Oh, hey, the lunar eclipse!"

Mabel looked up. Robbie had finished talking to the old lady and had apparently tuned back in to the twins' conversation.

"Y-you know about it?" Mabel asked. Could he be into astronomy too?

"Sure," Robbie said, "the squad and I always go out camping during eclipses. It's a fun tradition of ours."

Mabel's face fell. "Oh," she said quietly. Robbie didn't seem to hear her.

"There's one just this weekend," Robbie continued, "so we were all gonna go out camping by the Big Rock."

"Fun!" Dipper said. "Who's in your squad? I've always wanted a squad. Do you draw funny pictures of yourselves?"

Robbie chuckled. "No. You've already met Wendy—"

" _Oh_ ," Mabel muttered, having lost all of her earlier eloquence.

"—and then there's. . . ," he started listing them off on his fingers, "Natalie—or just Nat—Lia, Thompson, and Tambry."

"You and Thompson are the only boys?" Dipper asked in wonder.

 _How very brave of you_ , Mabel thought sarcastically.

"Well, yeah," Robbie said. "We've all been friends since forever though, so it isn't weird." He laughed. "Sometimes it feels like I'm the only guy, since Thompson is on his phone all the time."

Dipper nodded slowly, like he was completely on board. "Hey," he said suddenly, "how do you camp in the winter?"

"Oh, we drive out to my dad's old yurt," Robbie said. "It's been our family camping site for like, generations, and it's pretty warm."

Dipper wrinkled his nose. "What's a  _yurt_?"

Mabel sighed quietly and put her elbow on the counter, leaning her head on her hand.

"It's like a tent for the winter. It sits on top of the snow and stays warm inside. In fact I better go get the camping beds for it after—"

" _Robbie Corduroy!"_

Every head in the gift shop turned as Stanford Pines burst from the  _Employees Only_ door. Mabel acted without thinking, slamming the Journal shut and pushing it off the counter towards Dipper, who, thankfully, caught it and shoved it onto a shelf behind the counter.

Ford didn't seem to notice. He thundered up to the counter, and Mabel shied back as she saw the look on his face. He was  _angry_. She had a flash of fear that he had found out about the Journal, but he was focused on Robbie, not her.

"Is this some sort of joke? A prank your friends pulled?" Ford demanded, bracing his six-fingered hands on the counter and towering over Robbie.

Robbie's eyes were wide. "I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Pines," he said. He seemed scared, but his voice was steady.

"You don't know what—my axo—" Ford stopped, his eyes narrowing. "You don't know anything about a robbery?"

"A robbery?" Robbie repeated. "Someone stole from you?"

"Yes! Something very important! You  _swear_  it wasn't a prank from you or your friends?"

Robbie glanced around the gift shop at the tourists that were all watching the exchange. "Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else."

" _Robbie_ ," Ford said, his voice low but forceful.

"If my friends pulled this off, they didn't tell me about it," Robbie said. "What was stolen?"

"A—never you mind. A project of mine. Does this sound like something your friends would do?"

Robbie shook his head. "If they wanted to pull a prank on you, Mr. Pines, they'd vandalize your merchandise. And get me in on it. I'd be their in."

Ford's eyes narrowed. "We'll talk more about  _that_  later." He pushed off the counter and stood up straight, running a hand through his hair.

"Ford," Dipper said, "shouldn't you call the cops if you were robbed?"

Ford looked at Dipper as if he had just noticed the boy was there. "Um, yes, I should," he said. Then he turned and left the gift shop, muttering to himself the whole way out.

There was silence from the customers. Robbie turned to the twins and shook his head. "If someone stole one of his  _projects_ , he's not gonna call the cops about it."

"What do you think it was?" Mabel asked.

"Who knows," Robbie said. "Man, the old guy can be fierce when he needs to be."

Mabel and Dipper nodded.

"A robbery," Dipper said, leaning on his elbows. "That's kinda cool, actually. Who do you think did it?"

"A tourist, probably," Robbie said. "It's a good excuse to get out of town before you're caught."

"Yeah, but if they just stole one of Ford's projects, wouldn't they know him?"

It felt like Mabel talking about the Bottomless Pit had been years away. She put a hand to her forehead. How come she always got sabotaged when she tried to talk about these things?

The  _Employees Only_  door banged open again, making Mabel jump. Ford was back, this time looking even more angry. "You three, living room, now," he said, pointing at Mabel, Dipper, and Robbie. Then he was back through the door.

Robbie and Dipper got up and headed towards the door, Robbie seeming unconcerned about the customers waiting to buy trinkets, but Mabel stayed back for a moment to grab the Journal and stuff it in her hoodie.

Ford was pacing in front of the dining room table when they caught up to him.

Robbie began, "So, there are customers—"

"They stole money too."

There was silence.

"How much?" Dipper asked.

Ford sighed. "Not enough to give us financial trouble, but enough to make a mark. This was a very obvious robbery, kids, which makes me think—or, at least, hope—that it's just a prank."

"I'm still innocent," Robbie put in. "When did this robbery happen, anyone? Last night, or just now?"

"The money was stolen while I was talking to you just a few minutes ago."

The silence returned, this time heavy. That meant the thief was possibly still in the building.

"A-and the project?" Mabel ventured.

"The last time I saw it was just this morning. There were only a couple hours for the thief to come. After I saw the project was gone, I checked the money, and then went to the gift shop. Then I checked the money again. . . ."

"Grunkle Ford, you gotta call the cops if your money was stolen," Dipper said.

"Yes, fine," Ford said, sounding distracted. "The thief is still in the Museum, especially if they're disguised as a tourist. The penetrability of my own home is disturbing to say the least."

Mabel could see Dipper looking slightly confused about  _penetrability_ , so she leaned over and whispered, "How easy it was for the thief to get in."

"I knew that," Dipper whispered back.

"They stole two separate times in the same day," Ford continued, "which means they could be haunting us for days or weeks."

"Not if you call the cops," Robbie pointed out.

But Mabel was hung up on something Ford said. "Haunting?" She gasped. "Ford, do you think it's a ghost?"

Robbie raised an eyebrow.

"It's not a ghost," Ford said.

"But—"

"Ghosts don't steal, they haunt. Scare people, break things sometimes, but don't steal."

"Ghosts can do all sorts of things," Mabel muttered, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Regardless of whether it's a ghost or a person, I want to take some precautions."

"Like calling the cops?"

" _I AM NOT CALLING THE COPS!_ " Ford thundered. "Those idiots can't tell one end of a Taser from the other. I'm not trusting them to protect my business. Now, with that aside—"

It wasn't really aside, but everyone was in too shocked of a silence to interrupt.

"—I'd feel better if you kids weren't in the house for a while."

Mabel frowned. What did he expect them to do? Go live with Dipper's friends for a few days?

Unfortunately, Dipper had a worse idea. He gave his  _I've-got-a-brilliant-plan_ gasp and said, "We could go camping with Robbie and his friends!"

The world around Mabel froze. Or maybe she was just frozen.  _No_. That was a terrible idea.  _We can't we can't we—_

"Camping?" Ford asked.

"Yeah," Robbie said. "My friends and I are going camping this weekend. We're leaving this afternoon. We could totally take these two along."

_No no no no no—_

"That's very generous of you," Ford said. "I would love for them to go. That would give me some time to put all this thief nonsense to rest. How about you go finish your shift and then give these two a packing list? I have some extra gear they can borrow."

Mabel wanted to protest, but the sound wouldn't come.

"Yay! Camping!" Dipper said, turning to Mabel with an excited look on his face. The look slid off as he met her eyes and saw the fear in them.

Mabel finally found the strength to speak. "Can Dipper and I talk for a moment?" she asked. She grabbed Dipper's arm and pulled him off into the entry way before anyone could say no.

"What's wrong?" Dipper asked when they were out of Ford and Robbie's view.

"What's  _wrong_?" Mabel repeated. "You just signed us up to go spend three days out in the woods with teenagers,  _that's_  what's wrong!"

Dipper frowned. "We're teenagers."

"Not like  _them!_ To  _them_  we're still kids! You remember Wendy—she was a jerk! When she and the rest of Robbie's friends find out we're coming along they'll hate us! We won't be able to get away—they'll eat us alive! For once won't you  _think_  before you get us into these messes!"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Dipper said, putting his hands up. "Mabel, you are freaking out big time. Breathe for a second."

He let the time pass for Mabel to take a deep breath. It didn't help.

"Listen. They're only three years older than us—"

"Three years is a big difference! They're  _Juniors_! We're only eighth graders! We're in  _middle school_  for—"

" _Mabel._ Calm. Down. Robbie is nice, and I bet his friends are too. If we don't  _act_  like kids, they won't  _treat_  us like kids. And if Wendy is a jerk, so what? Robbie will look after us."

"I—I—"

"It'll be okay," Dipper said. Then he smiled. "And hey, isn't the Bottomless Pit near their camping spot?"

Mabel frowned. "How did you know that?"

"Lucky guess. Maybe you could get over there and study it instead of hanging out with Robbie's friends all day."

Mabel looked into her twin's eyes, searching them. Wow. He  _really_  thought he hadn't just sealed their doom.

"Although I thought you'd be excited to spend more time with Robbie, what with your cr—"

" _Dipper!_ " That did it. Mabel glared at her twin and then sighed and shook her head. "You can go. I'm gonna go get myself out of this."

"Mabes!" Dipper protested.

But she was already gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Pacifica had a big smile on her face.

This was going _perfectly._

She sat perched on the couch of Ford’s living room, keeping her posture perfect even though no one could see her. Who knew her amulet had invisibility powers? If she ever had, she had forgotten about them, since she used to have thugs at her every command out in the _real world_. People understood her need to be in power so much better in civilization.

Pacifica forced herself to stay still as Mabel stomped past, oblivious of her enemy’s presence. _Not yet, Pacifica. Attacking now would ruin all your perfect plans._

These things had to be done with finesse, after all.

Ford’s project and a chunk of his money sat in her lap, shielded by her power. She didn’t need the money, but she figured taking some would make the robbery less suspicious. Plus the look on his face when he realized it was gone was priceless. It made up for her having to be invisible—she didn’t like the idea of doing something awful to someone and not even being able to take credit for it.

She listened as Mabel walked up to Stanford, the Corduroy boy having just left. “Grunkle Ford, I want to stay and help you with the robber.”

Hmm, this was interesting.

“You’re going on the camping trip, Mabel,” Stanford replied, sounding tired.

Mabel stiffened. Pacifica realized her amulet was glowing purple, her habit of reading minds flaring up, but no purple smoke appeared around Mabel or Stanford’s head. _Impenetrable._

_Not for long._

“Grunkle Ford, I can help! I know you said it was dangerous last time, but you’ll be here to protect me, right? And if it really is a ghost—”

“It’s not a ghost.”

“—I know everything about ghosts! In fact, I thought I saw a shimmer over there by the couch just now.”

Pacifica sat very still.

“A trick of the light. I make sure my house is ghost-free, Mabel. I make very sure.”

Interesting. . . The old man really did know his way around the supernatural. Gideon claimed he was some sort of expert, with that strange little Journal of his. Pacifica thought reading up on these things was a waste of time when you could just be experiencing them.

“You’re going on that trip.”

“But Grunkle Ford—”

“Mabel,” Ford cut in firmly. “This isn’t just a way to get rid of you. Think of this as an opportunity to spend time with your brother and with Robbie. To make new friends.”

“I already have enough friends,” Mabel said, “but I don’t have enough knowledge about the supernatural!”

Whiny, whiny, whiny. Pacifica nearly shook her head, but then decided against it in case she created any more “shimmers.”

Ford shook his head for her. “You’ll find if you spend time researching that you could be using with other people. . . You miss out on things.”

That quieted the girl.

He was wrong, of course. People were simply there to be used by those who had the power to use them. Spending _time_ with them never did anything for you.

But the old man being wrong wasn’t what was important. People were wrong all the time; Pacifica didn’t let that bother her. What _was_ important was that Mabel would be out of the picture this weekend—leaving Stanford completely unprotected when Pacifica sent Bill after him.

Not that Mabel could’ve done anything anyway.

The creature on Pacifica’s lap started to bump up against its tank, sloshing the water around. Pacifica bit back a yelp. If this thing got her wet—

That was it. It was time to go. The sooner this little wet pink thing was used as her sacrifice to Bill, the better. She couldn’t even tell what it was, just that it was Stanford’s pet project. Or maybe literal pet. Either way, it would suffice.

Pacifica stood up carefully, the tank and the money in her arms. She couldn’t levitate them until she was out of sight, so she had to balance them against her chest. Good thing she was wearing solid black clothing rather than her normal outfit. As much as she loved it, it _was_ impractical for sneaking around.

Pacifica waited until Mabel went through the _Employees Only_ door before following through the temporary gap. It wasn’t until she had made it out of the gift shop in a similar fashion and out of sight that she breathed a small sigh of relief.

Time to go summon a demon.

~~~~~

“Ready to go?”

Mabel would rather have fallen over from the weight of all this gear and not been able to stand than get in Robbie’s truck and drive off to the campground.

She still couldn’t believe this was happening to her. The second those teenagers saw her, she would be dead meat. Dipper would somehow make them all love him, or at least leave him alone, but she wouldn’t be safe. She’d be a target. _Especially_ if she did something stupid like try to sound smart.

So no, she was not ready to go.

“Yep!” Dipper said. Mabel could tell her twin was determined to be cheerful despite her own anxious mood. Robbie looked like he couldn’t even tell how she felt.

Mabel still wasn’t sure why she found that relaxed ignorance so. . . attractive. . . .

_No. No fawning over Robbie. Especially when you’re about to be murdered by his friends as part of some teenage ritual._

“Alright, hop in! We’re picking up Wendy, so you two are in the back. The rest of the crew will meet us there.”

This just kept getting better and better.

Dipper got in first, squishing up against the side of the seat to fit his gear in the middle. Mabel took a deep breath and one last look at the Mystery Museum.

_I hope catching that robber is worth it, Ford, because I’m never coming back._

“Mabes, come on!”

She got in the truck.

She had to sit right up against the window, as the stuff between her and Dipper took up all the space available. It was a tight fit, but a comfortable tight—one she could fall asleep in. How long would this drive take, anyway?

Robbie got into the driver’s seat, and the truck roared to life. Mabel sighed.

_Goodbye, cruel world._

~~~~~

Pacifica looked around the little clearing she had found and smiled to herself. Short rock walls surrounded most of the area, only about twice as tall as her at their highest. Trees growing alongside the cliff edges provided shelter, leaving most of the ground snow-free. The entrance to the area was a small slope in the back, giving the valley a teardrop shape.

Or a drop of blood.

Her sacrifice was at her feet. She had drawn the Cipher Wheel on the forest floor with white spray paint (flash the right smile and she didn’t have to worry about age limits on buying these things), her candles placed evenly on the outside edge of the circle. Over Bill’s single eye was the peach-colored axolotl, the red contrast of its blood rather ghastly. It rested on top of two six-fingered gloves, which Pacifica had snatched from Stanford’s table as an afterthought. The money was there too,  propped up around the gloves, drops of blood on some of the bills—just in case the demon had any interest in money.

It looked perfect.

The whole set-up only needed one more thing, and he was fashionably late, _as usual_.

Pacifica sighed, leaning against a smooth patch of rock. She could wait for a bit longer. Gideon had made her promise not to summon the demon without him, as if he had more expertise with these things than she. But she had also promised they would be partners, and so she waited. He _had_ told her about this Cipher demon in the first place.

 And so she waited in the low lighting of her hidden valley, the white spray paint on the dead grass appearing almost to glow.

~~~~~

Wendy Valentino got into the car, her hood up and her hands in her pockets. Mabel had all but buried herself in camping gear and coats, trying to make herself look as small as possible. The slight discomfort was a small price to pay for the prospect of going unnoticed.

“Hey Robbie,” Wendy said, pulling the door closed and getting settled in her seat.

“Hey,” Robbie replied. “Ready for this?”

“Sure am.”

 _Maybe she won’t notice that we’re back here_.

Wendy started talking to Robbie, oblivious to the presence of the twins. _So help me, Dipper, if you say anything. . . ._

“So I told him, ‘I’m not going to put up with—’” Wendy stopped midsentence, looking at the rearview mirror. Then she slowly turned around.

_I’m not here. I’m hidden. I’m invisible._

“Hi Wendy!” Dipper said, waving.

“Robbie, what is he. . . ,” Wendy trailed off as her eyes scanned the back seat.

_I’m invisible I’m invisible I’m—_

“What are _they_ doing here?”

“They’re coming along,” Robbie said casually. “Ford needed a weekend to himself, so I offered to bring them on our trip. It’ll be fun, right, guys?” He looked over his shoulder at this, and Mabel stifled a gasp as he took his eyes off the road. Wasn’t he supposed to be driving and all?

“Right!” Dipper replied, grinning. Mabel moaned quietly to herself and sunk a bit further into her pile of stuff.

“Wrong,” Wendy shot back. “I didn’t agree to come _babysitting_.”

Mabel thought she saw Robbie roll his eyes in the rear-view mirror. “These kids are cool, Wen.”

“Babysitting is a weird word,” Dipper chimed in. “I mean, nobody actually used to sit on babies, did they? Was that, like, some barbaric form of stopping them from crying?”

Mabel silently screamed at her brother to shut up.

Wendy simply groaned loudly and put her head back against the headrest.

Robbie laughed. “I don’t think so, Dip. Probably just one of those weird words. See, Wendy? These guys are smart. Like, Mabel back there does scientific stuff with this—”

“Smart doesn’t equal fun, Robbie,” Wendy snapped. “I’m not going camping with some kids that’ll annoy the heck out of us.”

She didn’t say _heck_ , but Mabel quickly translated the word in her head. She hated hearing people swear. It made her feel all gross inside.

“Annoying is relative,” Dipper said. “To some people I’m the funniest guy around!”

“Shut up already!”

Mabel nearly emerged from her hidey hole to defend her brother, but he simply shrugged and sat back. Somehow, he could just let comments like that roll of him. That was one skill Mabel had no idea how to attain. This conversation alone would stay with her for hours, a dark thundercloud of hurtful words.

“Hiding under all that gear, _kid_?”

_No no no leave me alone leave me—_

“Hey,” Dipper said, “you can be rude to me, but don’t talk to my sister like that.”

Mabel couldn’t help smile a bit at his words. If only she could stand up for _him_ like that.

“Somethin’ to smile about?” Wendy asked. Mabel wiped the smile off her face immediately.

Dipper’s eyes narrowed. “I meant what I said.”

The car suddenly jerked as Robbie slammed on the brakes. This time, Mabel’s gasp escaped, and her hands shot out to brace herself against Wendy’s seat. Wendy swore violently, fueling Mabel’s shocked anger that much more.

The car immediately sped up again as if there were no problem. “Now that I have your attention,” Robbie said from the driver’s seat, “stop being jerks to each other. You especially, Wen.”

Wendy gave an offended scoff. “Don’t you brake-check me, Robbie!”

“Don’t get into my car and start insulting my passengers,” Robbie replied, sounding much calmer than she. “We’re going to be spending all weekend together and I don’t know about you, but I came to have a good time with my girlfriend and my coworkers. Who else did?”

“Me!” Dipper said, back in his happy mode. Mabel knew he was still ready to pounce on Wendy if he needed to, though.

However, she was much more preoccupied with something else. She sunk deeper into her lair, burying her head in a pillow, even though she had to crane her neck at an awkward angle to do so.

_Girlfriend?_


	4. Chapter 4

Gideon Northwest tromped through the deep snow in a foul mood.

He’d agreed to help Pacifica summon Bill, yes. He was on his way to her now—there was no way he would let her do it alone. But just a couple hours ago, the realization that he had to deal with Bill again had started to sink in.

 _I don’t_ want _to summon Bill,_ he whined in his thoughts. _I don’t want to have to see that stupid eye of his again. And I don’t want to go through everything it takes to make him go away._

He had the power and skill to handle things; he was certain of that. But that didn’t mean he wanted to have to handle them.

_Stupid Bill. Stupid Cipher Wheel. Stupid Pacifica._

Gideon stopped, standing in the snow, frowning.

“Gideon Northwest, get ahold of yourself!” he said out loud. He was acting like a child.

No, he’d agreed to this. Gideon Northwest always kept his word. And besides, if he didn’t show up soon, Pacifica would probably go ahead without him, which was the worst-case scenario here.

He sighed one last time and kept on moving, headed towards the rendezvous.

He reached the tiny valley a few minutes later, taking the sloping hill at a run as the snow lessened. When he came to a stop, backpedaling a bit to get his balance, he could see Pacifica in front of him, her summoning circle at her feet. The light was considerably lower down here, with the sun about to set and the pine tree boughs creating a natural ceiling. Gideon activated his amulet; Pacifica had done the same.

Gideon wondered if he had seen her without her amulet activated more than a handful of times.

“I had hoped you would grace us with your presence soon,” Pacifica said sarcastically.

Gideon ignored the jibe, spreading his hands. “Last chance, Pacifica. You can still back out of this.”

Her eyes flitted down to her sacrifice—what kind of creature was that in the center, anyway?—and back up to Gideon.

“No. I’m doing this.”

Gideon sighed.

“You have your Journal?”

Gideon pulled it out, flipping to the page on Bill. It made him feel a little better to remember that Pacifica wouldn’t have the incantation without him, but only a little.

“Here it is. Say this spell here, and he should come. If he doesn’t, well then, we’re lucky.”

Pacifica rolled her eyes as she took the book, reading the spell over. “Alright. Seems easy enough.” She didn’t say the incantation yet, however. Gideon assumed she was figuring out just how to pronounce everything.

As she read, he took in her set-up. The Cipher Wheel spray-painted on the dead grass, framed by candles. The small pyramid of money surrounding a pair of gloves. Gideon leaned in a bit to get a closer look. Six-fingered. And then the dead pink thing on top.

“Where’d you get all this?”

“Hmm?” Pacifica asked, not looking up. “Oh, just a robbery.”

 _Just a robbery._ Why was he letting this girl summon a demon, again?

Before he could think of an answer, Pacifica took a deep breath and started chanting.

“ _Triangulum, entangulum.”_

Here we go.

_“Vene foris dominus mentium.”_

The candlelight flared up as she chanted.

_“Vene foris videntis omnium!”_

She shouted those last words, throwing an arm out for style. Count on Pacifica to make a simple summoning spell into a performance. But then, she suddenly fell to her knees, chanting, her eyes glowing purple.

_“Egassem sdrawkcab, egassem sdrawkcab, egassem sdrawkcab, **egassem sdrawkcab** , **EGASSEM SDRAWKCAB**!”_

The candles flared higher, then went out. A sudden, unnatural wind started blowing at Gideon’s hair. His amulet went out, along with Pacifica’s. The pine boughs above waved back and forth, throwing dappled light onto the scene below.

And the world turned to grey.

Gideon felt himself slip into the mindscape, felt his body relax as his mind partially left it. His body wouldn’t collapse, only close its eyes and stand still. Only experience let him know what he was looking for in the sensation of leaving his body; Pacifica likely had no idea what was happening except that her vision was going greyscale.

And then the demon appeared.

It was subtle, at first. Tiny golden flames appeared in the air, forming the shape of a triangle. The flames grew larger until they blurred together into a solid line, turning from yellow to black. And yet, the black was bright, a twisting black that glowed, something Gideon had never seen anywhere else. The area inside the triangle became the same black, but with swirling tendrils of intensely bright color puncturing the surface. All this lasted for only a few seconds.

Then the eye appeared. A deep, multi-layered laugh filled the clearing.

With the eye, came the outline. Bricks. Tiny arms and legs. A bowtie. A top hat.

Bill Cipher _popped_ into existence.

Black with white outlines, he looked around. “Oh! Oh!”

Then his “face” fell. His yellow glow turned on, illuminating the grey around him.

“ **Gravity Rises**?” the demon whined. “It was good to be **goneeee** _._ ”

Gideon rolled his eyes. “Nice to see you too, Cipher. I see you haven’t changed.”

Bill looked at him and threw up his spindly black hands. “Gideon Northwest! Just **great**. What do **you** want?”

Gideon allowed himself a small smile. “I wasn’t the one who summoned you, Cipher.”

Bill’s eye narrowed slightly.

Gideon jabbed a thumb at Pacifica. “She was.”

Bill seemed to notice Pacifica for the first time. “Why, **Crescent Moon**! Nice to see you again.”

Pacifica, who had been standing with her mouth open in awe, immediately closed it, looking shocked.

_Mistake number one. Don’t let Bill see when he surprises you._

 “I’ve never met you before!”

Bill’s form flashed a brighter shade of yellow as he laughed. “No, but **I** have.”

Gideon rolled his eyes again. Great. Now he was working with _two_ drama queens.

“Why did you call me Crescent Moon?” Pacifica demanded.

“Your symbol,” Gideon cut in before Bill could reply. “That’s his name for you because that’s your symbol on the Wheel.”

Pacifica glanced down at the Cipher Wheel. The crescent moon was right next to her feet.

“Right again, **Loneee Wolf** ,” Bill said, using Gideon’s symbol as a name. “How’d you know **that**?”

“Oh, I know lots of things,” Gideon replied.

Bill looked suitably impressed. That was the line the demon had used on Gideon years ago, the very first time they had met. Gideon frowned slightly as he wondered if Bill had gotten him to say that line on purpose. He had thought he was being clever, but Bill had a habit of manipulating people.

Pacifica still looked flustered, something Gideon rarely saw and happened to find pretty funny. Less funny with Bill around, but still funny. She spluttered a bit before saying, “Listen to me, demon! I have a job for you.”

_Mistake number two. Never treat Bill like a pawn._

Bill ignored Pacifica’s words, but floated closer to her. “Hey, **look** what I can do.”

He gestured out to Gideon, who immediately felt a pull on his jaw. _No way_. Gideon put his hand over his mouth, glaring at Bill, but his teeth just passed through it, flying out of his mouth and hovering around Bill’s hand in a clump. It didn’t hurt very much, not in this dream body, but Gideon did _not_ appreciate being Bill’s circus act.

“ **Here**! Rich kid teeth,” Bill said, dropping the teeth into Pacifica’s hands. “For **you** , kid.”

Pacifica stared up at him. “You’re insane!”

Then she smiled. “I like your style, demon.”

If Bill had a mouth, Gideon was sure he would’ve smiled back. “And I yours, Crescent Moon. Just remember who really has the **power** here.” He waved his hand again, in a circular motion, and the teeth flew back into Gideon’s mouth. Gideon immediately started yelling at Bill, but no sound would come out of his mouth.

Bill laughed. “And I’ll always be powerful enough to shut **him** up.”

Pacifica laughed too, though she still sounded a bit uncertain. “I’ll keep that in mind. Will you do a job for me, then?”

Gideon couldn’t believe them! He was the one who made this meeting possible, and they were dismissing him like some bystander! He stomped away to the cliff wall, leaning against it so he could see Pacifica and Bill from the side and glowering at both of them with folded arms.

“ **Sure** thing! Whaddaya need?”

“I need you to enter the mind of Stanford Pines and tell me the location of the deed to his property.”

Bill put a hand to his bow tie and started nodding, but then stopped and shook his. . . head. “No can do.”

“Excuse me?” Pacifica demanded, slipping back into spoiled-showgirl mode.

“ **Stanford Pines** is a smart guy,” Bill said, “for a human. He happens to have a **metal plate** installed in his head around his skull. It **keeps** me from accessing his **mind**.”

Gideon perked up. He hadn’t known this. There was a way to keep Bill out?

Pacifica looked incredulous. “What! You mean you can’t get into his head at all? Even though he’s on the Wheel?”

Bill looked down at the Cipher Wheel Pacifica had spray-painted on the forest floor. “ **That**? Even my Symbols can **evade** me, kid, if they try. At least. . . **For a while**.”

His Symbols. Gideon hated that he was on the Cipher Wheel, sometimes. Especially when Gideon talked about it like it made him his possession.

Gideon wasn’t _anyone’s_ possession. Especially not Bill’s.

Pacifica stomped her foot and curled her hands into fists at her side. “Well, now what!”

“ **Good** question,” Bill said. “You summoned me, Crescent Moon. Had an **animal sacrifice** and everything, which I appreciate, by the way. Ya gotta make some sort of **deal** with me now.”

Pacifica put a hand to her chin, thinking. Gideon sighed.

“I could invade **somebody else** ’s mind,” Bill offered.

_This just keeps getting better and better._

Pacifica looked up and grinned. “Yes, you could. Why not—no. We still need to get our hands on that Museum. Who else would know where the deed was?”

One of the symbols on the spray-paint Cipher Wheel started to glow. Pacifica didn’t seem to notice, but Gideon looked over. It was the Ice Bag.

“I’ve got it!” Pacifica said. “That employee, the one going on the camping trip with the Pines twins. I was hoping they wouldn’t be around to suspect anything, but it’ll have to do.”

“Oh, they won’t suspect a **thing** ,” Bill assured her. Gideon narrowed his eyes. Why did he feel like Bill was being ironic?

The moment he thought that, he could have sworn he heard a rustling sound above him. Still, he didn’t dare take his eyes off Bill.

“Bill, could you search the employee—Robbie, I believe—in his mind for information about the deed to the Museum? If it’s in a safe, what the code is, stuff like that.”

“Sure can! **Robbie Corduroy** , huh? Never been in **his** head before.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“ **Absolutely** , kid. What will you do for **me** in return?”

Pacifica frowned. Had Gideon told her about the deals? He couldn’t remember now, but if he had she probably hadn’t been paying attention. “I don’t know. What do you want?”

Bill shrugged. “We can work out the details later, if you want.”

 _Bad idea! Very bad idea!_ Gideon stepped forward and started trying to yell again, but he was still on mute. _Pacifica, for once, please see how bad of an idea this is!_

“Deal,” Pacifica said with a smile.

Gideon grit his teeth.

_Mistake number three. Always make sure the terms of a deal are clear before shaking._

Bill outstretched his hand, and it lit up with blue fire, purple tips dancing at the end of the flames. Pacifica only hesitated a second before shaking.

“Well,” Bill said, “time to **invade** Robbie’s mind! This should be **fun**!”

_Pacifica, if this ends up blowing up in our face, I will murder you._

Bill started to ascend higher in the air, glowing brighter and brighter as he spoke. “ **Remember** the number **sixteen**! Watch for **airplanes**! Pomegranates cause **brain** damage! **BYEEEEEEE**!”

By the time Bill shouted this last word, his voice was getting faint, and his glow was near blinding.

With one last flash of light, he disappeared.


	5. Chapter 5

The truck rolled to a stop, and only when she felt it bump back did Mabel realize what was going on.

She raised her head in drowsy confusion, having managed to nearly fall asleep. The drive wasn’t going to be that long, but apparently her anxiety about all this made her tired.

“Here we are!” Robbie was saying. “Our home away from home. The Big Rock.”

“Cool!” Dipper said, unbuckling his seatbelt and leaning forward, waiting for Robbie to let him out. Wendy simply grumbled a bit in the front seat.

Mabel started pushing stuff off of her, frowning at the back of Wendy’s seat. _Girlfriend._ She was Robbie’s girlfriend? How did he put up with her? She hadn’t said one nice thing since getting in the truck. Why would he even fall for her?

And why was Mabel suddenly so jealous?

_You always knew you never had a chance with Robbie. Thirteen-year-old girls don’t date sixteen-year-old guys. It doesn’t happen! Him already having a girlfriend has nothing to do with it._

But it still made things worse, somehow.

“Hey, grumpy,” Robbie was saying. Mabel could see a small smile on his face as he turned to Wendy. “How about a smile on that face?”

Mabel couldn’t see Wendy’s expression, being behind her, but after a moment the teen leaned over and gave Robbie a quick kiss. “Alright,” she lamented. “For you.”

And suddenly Mabel wanted to bury herself back under her camping gear and never emerge.

Another agonizing moment passed before Robbie spoke again. “Alright, let’s get all this stuff out of here.” He reached around his seat and poked Dipper’s knee. “Like you.”

Dipper laughed. “Hey!”

Robbie got out of the car and pulled the seat forward for Dipper, who bounded out immediately. For Mabel and Wendy, the process took much longer. Neither of them acknowledged each other as Wendy pulled the seat forward and Mabel slid down to the ground, having just slipped the Journal under her jacket.

Snow crunched beneath her feet as she joined Dipper and Robbie on the other side of the truck. She still wasn’t sure camping in the winter was a good idea, but that seemed to be the least of her problems at this point. The boys were pulling stuff out of the backseat, throwing it on a tarp Robbie had laid on the snow. “Dip,” Mabel said softly.

Dipper turned, dropping a sleeping bag onto the tarp. “Yeah?”

Mabel pulled him aside as she saw Wendy coming around the truck from the other way.

“C-can we go?”

Dipper frowned. “Shouldn’t we help set up?”

Mabel shivered in the cold. “I think we’ll just get in the way. C’mon. We can go find the Bottomless Pit, maybe, or just. . . get away.”

Dipper was silent for a moment, searching his twin’s face. “I’m sorry Wendy was rude to you.”

“I-it’s not that. Please?”

Dipper hesitated, but then nodded. “Alright. Let me go ask Robbie if it’s okay.”

Mabel stayed where she was as Dipper rejoined Robbie and Wendy. “Hey, is there anything we can do to help, or is setting up the yurt pretty hard?”

Mabel groaned softly. _Dipper, you don’t offer our help when we’re trying to get out of it!_

Robbie gave a small laugh. “You guys can go explore while we settled in. Don’t go too far, though. Mr. Pines’ll have my head if you guys got mauled by a bear or something.”

“Don’t bears hibernate in winter?” Dipper asked.

Robbie waved a dismissive hand. “You get my point.”

Dipper bounced back over to Mabel. “There! Now we can go,” he said with a smile.

Mabel was both grateful for his enthusiasm but resentful of it at the same time. Nevertheless, she followed as he made his way for the woods surrounding them.

“So, where is this Bottomless Pit, anyway?”

Mabel pulled out the Journal, flipping through to the page on the Bottomless Pit. “The directions are all smudged, probably from Ford’s own arm while he wrote some of these footnotes.” She gestured to the small, cramped lines written sideways in the margins. “But I can make out ‘large rock’ and ‘clearing,’ so I think Robbie’s Big Rock is close to it.” She stopped, looking around, then pointed decisively to their right. “This way.”

She didn’t have any idea where they were going, but she wanted to look like an adventurer, and they always chose their paths well.

The twins trekked through the snowy forest for a while in silence. Though it was chilly, Mabel was grateful for the fresh air after that car ride. It hadn’t been the longest one she’d ever been on—especially if you counted the bus drive from Piedmont to Gravity Rises—but the negative mood hadn’t done anything to help it go by faster.

Dipper suddenly stopped. “Do you hear something?”

Mabel stopped too, listening. “No.”

Dipper frowned, squinting into the distance as if it would improve his hearing. “Listen.”

Mabel listened, but could only hear the still, silent air.

Until. . . .

Yes, she _could_ hear something. It sounded like voices, in the distance.

Mabel and Dipper shared a glance, and then started moving towards the sound of the voice, slowly and carefully. It was increasing in volume, but they couldn’t make out what it was saying or who it was.

Then, with a last shout echoing faintly through the trees, it stopped.

“Can you still hear it?” Mabel asked.

“No,” Dipper said. “It just. . . stopped.”

They waited for a moment, but could hear nothing else.

“I say we investigate. It could be a wounded magical creature!”

“Or an evil magical creature trying to trap us.”

“We’ll be fine,” Dipper said. “And isn’t this all about adventure? C’mon!” He started running towards the direction of the voice as best he could in the deep snow, forcing Mabel to follow after him.

“Dipper!” she panted. “We can’t—just—”

But the physical exertion it took to run through knee-deep snow was too much for Mabel, and she stopped trying to talk.

After some time, she was about to demand they stop for a bit, but Dipper yelled out before she could say anything.

_“Woah!”_

Her twin flailed, throwing his arms out and pinwheeling back. Mabel stumbled to a stop behind him and grabbed his shoulders, steadying him. “What happened?” she asked when he was balanced.

“Cliff face,” he said, panting. “Almost jumped right off it.”

Mabel looked down, and sure enough the snow ended abruptly, hidden by low-hanging tree branches. Mabel bent down, inspecting it. “Wow, there’s a whole little clearing down there, it looks like.”

“Ooh, maybe the Bottomless Pit is down there!” Dipper said, crouching down next to her. She noticed he was favoring one ankle, rubbing the other one absently, but it didn’t look like he twisted it or anything.

“Maybe,” Mabel said. “Wait, Dip, do you see. . . ?” She leaned forward.

“See what?”

“Something. . . Purple.”

The moment she said it, a gust of wind nearly knocked the two of them onto their backs. Mabel instinctively closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, it took her a moment to figure out what was wrong.

The world. . . was _grey_.

Everything had gone to greyscale. The trees, the snow, the sky. Only Dipper, kneeling next to her with a shocked expression on his face, still had any color at all.

“D-Dip,” Mabel said slowly, “are you seeing this?”

“I think so,” Dipper replied, equally slow.

“I’ve got it!” exclaimed a voice.

Mabel nearly jumped out of her skin. She knew that voice. She’d recognize that voice anywhere.

And it was coming from below them.

She and Dipper shared a look, and then simultaneously reached for the pine tree boughs in front of them, lifting them up enough to peek through.

“That employee, the one going on the camping trip with the Pines twins,” Pacifica Pleasure was saying. “I was hoping they wouldn’t be around to suspect anything, but it’ll have to do.”

It took Mabel a moment to process what Pacifica said, as she was focused on the. . . _thing_ across from Pacifica. A glowing yellow triangle with an eye was facing the girl, black hands on his. . . hips.

“The Illuminati,” Mabel whispered. Dipper looked up at her, but didn’t say anything.

One thing Mabel didn’t expect, though, was the Illuminati to have a top hat and a bow tie.

“Oh, they won’t suspect a **thing** ,” the triangle said to Pacifica. His voice echoed with multiple layers.

 _They._ He was talking about the twins! Mabel wanted to shy back before either Pacifica or the triangle could see them, but she couldn’t bring herself to move away. Instead, she watched from the side as Pacifica nodded in thought.

“Bill,” the showgirl finally said, “could you search the employee—Robbie, I believe—in his mind for information about the deed to the Museum? If it’s in a safe, what the code is, stuff like that.”

Mabel and Dipper shared multiple concerned and confused looks. Robbie? What did they want with Robbie? “The deed to the Museum”?

“Sure can!” the triangle—Bill?—replied. “ **Robbie Corduroy** , huh? Never been in **his** head before.”

And it suddenly came back. Mabel gasped, causing Dipper to bring his head up sharply to look at her.

“That guy!” she whispered fiercely. “He’s in the Journal!”

“He is?” Dipper whispered back.

She started nodding, and opened her mouth to keep going, but he shook his head. The message was clear: _wait until we’re not spying on our enemy._

“So you’ll do it?” Pacifica was saying. The hopefulness in her voice made Mabel sick to her stomach.

“ **Absolutely** , kid. What will you do for **me** in return?”

“I don’t know. What do you want?”

“We can work out the details later, if you want.”

The triangle—the _demon_ —held out his hand, and Pacifica took it, both hands coming alight with blue fire as they shook.

“Deal,” Pacifica said with a smile.

A shiver went up and down Mabel’s entire body. She still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but it _couldn’t_ be good.

Bill floated up a little higher and spoke with a smile in his voice. How he spoke, Mabel wasn’t sure; he had no mouth, but he flashed a brighter yellow with every syllable. “Well, time to **invade** Robbie’s mind! This should be **fun**!”

 _This is bad this is bad this is very very bad this is_ really _bad—_

The demon was still talking. And still glowing brighter.

“ **Remember** the number **sixteen**!” He yelled. Mabel flinched back, as it looked like he looked at _her_.

“Watch for **airplanes**!” His glow was almost blinding now, and his voice was growing farther away.

“Pomegranates cause **brain** damage! **BYEEEEEEE**!”

In a flash, Bill grew too bright to see anything. Mabel squeezed her eyes shut.

When she opened them, the world around her was back in color, and the demon below had disappeared.

The evening forest was silent as Mabel stood up shakily, Dipper next to her. At the forefront of her mind, she knew the two of them had to leave as soon as possible, to get back to the camp before Pacifica saw them, to do _something_ about all this. But just behind that, her thoughts were paralyzed.

“Mabel.”

Dipper’s voice was clear and strong, though still quiet. It snapped her back into the present, out of her mounting panic.

“We have to get to Robbie. _Now_.”

Mabel stared at Dipper for a moment, her brain processing his words like she was dragging them through molasses. Finally, she nodded.

“Now,” she repeated.

~~~~~

As Dipper ran, the world around him inked to black.

It wasn’t until he almost tripped over his own feet that he realized he couldn’t see anything anymore. He could hear—Mabel was still running and panting behind him—but they had better find the campsite soon or they’d be stranded out in the cold dark forest with no way to help Robbie.

He still wasn’t sure _how_ they were going to help Robbie, or even what exactly they needed to help him _with_.

Mabel’s breath huffed in his ear as she ran alongside him. He hoped she was okay; she seemed really shell-shocked after what they had seen. But the concerned brother in him was overridden by the situation. They _had_ to tell Robbie what they had heard!

“D-Dip—Dipper, I can’t s—see!” Mabel suddenly said, gulping for air. Dipper heard her footfalls slow, and he stopped in the snow, turning in her direction. He thought he could make her out, just slightly.

“Do you—” He was gasping for air too. “—have a flashlight?”

“No!”

Dipper moaned to himself. “I should’ve brought my light-up shoes. Mabes, do you. . . Do you think we’re going the right way?”

It was the wrong thing to say. Mabel immediately started to hyperventilate. “Oh my gosh we’re lost out in the middle of the forest and we’re going to freeze to death and they’ll find our cold dead bodies buried under the snow weeks later and—”

“Woah, woah, Mabel! That’s not what I meant! It’s okay!”

He fumbled through the snow until he ran into her, making her laugh a bit despite herself.

Sometimes, Dipper thought, it wasn’t fair that she got to do all the panicking and he always had to comfort her. He didn’t mind, but. . . Wasn’t he allowed to be scared too?

He shook his head at himself. No, not while Mabel was scared. He had to be strong around Mabel. For her.

A sudden bright beam cut through the darkness, hitting Dipper directly in the eyes.

“ _Gah!_ ” He fell back, landing in the snow. It immediately soaked through the seat of his pants, reminding him once again how wet, cold, and miserable he was. At least he wasn’t stupid enough to wear shorts today.

“I found them!” a voice was yelling. “I found them! Guys? Over here!”

Was that. . . ?

Dipper blinked rapidly in the light until he was no longer blind. He could see Mabel now, shivering and attempting to look around the light. He thought he recognized the voice, but he couldn’t tell. . . .

“There you idiots are! When Robbie said to go exploring he didn’t mean wander around after dark! Now _I’m_ stuck searching the stupid woods for you—”

Dipper covered his ears. Yep, that was Wendy.

Mabel pulled him to his feet, and they both made their way towards Wendy’s light. “Where’s the campsite from here?” Dipper asked. “We kinda got lost.”

“No duh,” Wendy replied, and Dipper thought he saw her roll her eyes behind the flashlight beam. “It’s back that way, Robbie’s there waiting, and he’s worried about you guys. Which means the _rest_ of us had to come looking for you in the dark.”

Mabel was quiet; Dipper knew her pride was wounded. “Sorry,” he said for both of them, though he didn’t really mean it.

Then it hit him again. The triangle guy. Robbie.

As Dipper’s mind raced, his mouth went with it. “Wendy thank you for finding us can we please go back as fast as possible ‘cause we really _really_ need to tell Robbie something plus it’s _freezing_ out here and—”

“Woah, kid, put a sock in it,” Wendy said with a scowl. “Just follow me and _shut up_.”

Dipper met Mabel’s eyes, and they both frowned, but followed Wendy without saying anything.

It was only a few minutes before they got back to the tent thingy—right, the yurt, that’s what it was called—and Dipper started running for it as soon as it was visible, a faint glow coming from within. “You said Robbie was in here?” he called back to Wendy. He didn’t wait for confirmation, though, as he was at the yurt. He ran up the wooden steps and threw the door open.

“Robbie! Robbie, you’re in—!”

He stopped and stared. While he was frozen, Mabel pounded into the yurt and came to a stop next to him.

The twins turned to each other, and then back to Robbie.

“He’s asleep,” Mabel said unnecessarily. “D-do you think. . . ?”

Robbie was slumped in a camping chair, lit by some lamps hanging from the yurt ceiling. As Dipper and Mabel stared, they saw a shadow on the back wall.

Shaped like a triangle.

The shadow triangle descended on Robbie’s shadow and disappeared, and as it did, an ominous quiet swept through the room.

“We’re. . . we’re too late,” Dipper said. “Bill is in his mind.”

“W-wait!” Mabel gasped, pulling her Journal out from under her sweater. She flipped through it frantically until she stopped on a page that depicted a large picture of Bill splattered with. . . blood?

“’It is possible to follow the demon into a person’s mind,’” Mabel read, “’and prevent his chaos. One must simply recite this incantation.’”  

“Follow him?” Dipper asked. “As in, go into Robbie’s mind?”

Mabel paled, but nodded firmly. “We have to,” she said, probably more for herself than Dipper.

He took a deep breath. “Alright. Let’s do it.”

Mabel started. “Right now?”

“Well of course right now!” Dipper replied. “That Bill guy is in his head, probably doing whatever awful things demons do in people’s heads!”

Mabel scanned the Journal. “Okay. Put your hand on Robbie’s arm, or something.”

The twins stepped forward on either side of Robbie, each placing a hand on his arm. Mabel blushed a bit as she touched him, immediately looking back down at the Journal.

Then she took a deep breath.

“ _Videntus omnium_ ,” she chanted. “ _Magister mentium_.”

The lamplight flickered.

“ _Magnesium ad hominem. Magnum opus._ ”

The wooden door banged open again, making Mabel jump. “What on earth are you two doing?” Wendy demanded.

_Bad timing, Wendy!_

Dipper saw Mabel’s expression harden, and she continued chanting. “ _Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus awesomazus_!”

The lamps went out, and the room started glowing blue. With a start, Dipper realized the light was coming from Mabel’s eyes. From _his_ eyes.

“Stop doing that! Get away from my boyfriend!” Wendy started advancing on them.

Mabel was nearly shouting now. “ _Magister mentium!_ ”

Wendy reached Dipper, and she tried to push him away.

“ _Magister mentium!_ ”

“Wendy, wait, stop, you can’t—”

“ _MAGISTER MENTIUM!_ ”

The blue light grew so strong that it obscured Dipper’s vision entirely. All he could feel was his hand on Robbie’s arm, and Wendy’s hand on his.

Then even that disappeared.


	6. Chapter 6

Mabel opened her eyes to see a grey world again.

She was in the forest, but this time it was different. It was fuzzy, like she was viewing it on an old television with bad reception. Craggy trees snarled around each other in all directions, even above them. There was light, but it didn’t seem to be coming from anything. It was just there. It was quiet, unnaturally quiet. There seemed to be a distant sound of wind, but Mabel couldn’t feel anything, so it must’ve just been the silence.

Someone moaned next to her.

Mabel jumped as she saw _Wendy_ of all people getting to her feet. Dipper was on the other side of her, giving Mabel a pleading, _this-isn’t-my-fault_ look.

“What. . . happened?”

Good question! What the _heck_ was Wendy doing here?

Mabel tried to remember just moments before, when she was saying the spell. All that came to mind was the blue light and the feeling as the magic took root in her chest.

“Well. . . ,” Dipper said, “we’re in Robbie’s mind. Or something.”

Wendy turned on him. “ _What_?”

“There’s this demon in his mind, trying to get information, and we followed him in to try to stop him. Trust me, we did _not_ mean to bring you along,” Dipper finished, folding his arms.

“How did she follow us?” Mabel demanded.

“She grabbed my arm! I couldn’t do anything!”

“ _Shut up!_ ” Wendy yelled. “I don’t know _what_ you’re playing at, or where we are—”

“Dipper told you, we’re in Robbie’s mind,” Mabel said. Her stomach swam with butterflies from talking back to Wendy, but they weren’t strong enough to stop her from speaking. She had no patience with this jerk of a teenager right now. “We have to find this triangle, Bill, who’s also in here, and get him out. While you’re here, you might as well help us.”

Wendy stared at Mabel, then at Dipper, than back at Mabel. Her mouth opened and shut, and her face was a mask of outrage. She couldn’t seem to find words to say. That worked for Mabel.

“ **You guys** are all so **hilarious!** ” said a sudden, loud voice.

They all turned to the yellow light that was Bill Cipher, floating down in front of them with a lazy look in his eye. There was a black cane in his hand, that he twirled around his wrist.

“That’s him!” Dipper said, pointing at Bill. “That’s the guy!”

“That’s **me**!” Bill agreed. “I’m **the guy**!” He landed on a log, leaning on his cane. “ **Nice** of you all to **meet me** at last,” he continued. “ **Stitched Heart** , **Shooting Star** , **Pine Tree**. Now we can **really** have fun!” As he spoke, he gestured to each of them in turn: Wendy, Dipper, then Mabel.

“What do you want with Robbie’s mind?” Mabel demanded, taking a step forward. Something about being in someone else’s mind, about not being in her body anymore, about everything that had happened today, just made her forget to be scared. She only felt angry at this demon.

“Whatever **Little Miss Pleasure** wants with it,” Bill replied, “but you **already** knew that, **didn’t** you?”

Mabel and Dipper shared a look. Bill knew they had eavesdropped on him and Pacifica?

Bill laughed, a startling, multi-layered sound that shocked Mabel into paying attention. “ **You** two don’t think you’re really **that** clever, **do** you?” he asked. “I **let** you into the **mindscape** to overhear us! I **figured** it would make things more **interesting**!”

Wendy stepped forward, past Mabel. “What kind of trick are you?” she demanded. In her periphery, Mabel saw Dipper face-palming.

“I wouldn’t call myself a **trick** , per say,” Bill said, his slitted pupil travelling to the right upper corner of his eye. “A **prank** would be a better term. **Y’know** , that **nasty** prank that a **delinquent kid** pulls on the **last day** of school without knowing just how **damaging** it is.” There was a grin in his voice that sent a shiver down Mabel’s spine.

Wendy rounded on the twins. “Is Robbie in on this? Is this all some sort of joke?”

“Oh, **Stitched Heart** ,” Bill said, “don’t be so **transparent**.” He pointed a finger at her, squinting, and a laser beam shot from his hand like a gun, hitting Wendy square in the chest. There was a flash of red light, and Wendy stumbled back. Mabel stared in horror at the hole in Wendy’s abdomen, carved in a perfect circle. Its edges were fuzzy, but you could see right through where her stomach would be.

Wendy looked down at herself and screamed, trying to cover up the hole with her hands. Her cries filled the space around them, but Bill kept talking over them like Wendy wasn’t even there.

“Look, **kids** , all I need is **information** ,” he said, back to leaning on his cane. “ **Subconscious** information that’s probably going to take some **digging** to find. I don’t need **you** getting **in the way**.”

Wendy had stopped screaming and was taking deep breaths in the background.

It was Dipper’s term to speak up. “We’re sure as heck going to get in the way!” he shouted. “We’re going to stop you!”

Bill rolled his eye. “Don’t **kid** yourself, **kid**. I’m the **master** of the mind! How many **minds** have **you** invaded before?”

Dipper opened his mouth and took a breath, and then shut it again.

Bill laughed, a detached sound only visible from his yellow glow flashing brighter. “ **Exactly**. While you kids **blunder** around in Robbie’s dreams, **I’ll** be doing what I **came** here for. **Good luck** wandering somebody **else’s** mind—it’s not **nearly** as easy as I make it **look**!”

With that, Bill lifted into the air and zoomed away, passing straight through a gnarled tree with the sound of splintered wood. The resulting hole was unnaturally accurate to Bill’s triangular shape.

There was a stunned silence for a moment, even from Wendy. Dipper turned to Mabel. “What are we going to do?”

For some reason, it felt right that he was turning to her for direction.

“Right,” Mabel said. It was time to do something she was good at: pretending like she knew what she was doing. “First off, we need to figure out what to do with Wendy.”

“You’re not going to _do_ anything with me!” Wendy snapped.

The twins ignored her. “Do you think we could send her back out of Robbie’s mind?” Dipper asked.

Mabel frowned in thought. Maybe. . . .

“Listen up, _squirts_ ,” Wendy said. Mabel’s internal profanity filter kicked in again. “Let’s say we really are inside my boyfriend’s mind, like the supernatural crap he spouts off about is actually real—”

Mabel perked up at this.

“—then if we are, there is _no_ way I’m letting you run around in his head without me there to keep you in line. Or better yet, you can find a way to get us _all_ out of here.”

“We’re not going to do that,” Mabel countered. She didn’t mention that she didn’t actually know how to get them out, even if she wanted to. “We’re in here to help Robbie by chasing out Bill, and we’re going to see that through. Dipper and I are going to go do what we came to, and you’re welcome to along _if_ you’re helpful about it. Otherwise you might as well stay here complaining to no one.”

Both Dipper and Wendy looked shocked at Mabel’s words, and she was no different. Usually she would be terrified to say something like this, mortified that it had come out of her mouth. But she felt only cold calm and annoyance towards Wendy, and didn’t even regret the words when they left her mouth.

 Finally, Wendy said, “I’m coming along.”

“Fine,” Mabel replied. She turned to Dipper. “Where do you think we are right now?”

Dipper assumed the expression of a kid who had just been called on by the teacher, who hadn’t been paying attention. “Uh. . . Robbie’s. . . mind?”

“Right, but where in Robbie’s mind?” Mabel had done a bit of research on the brain, specifically sleep, as a side quest from her usual paranormal research. She looked around the twisted grey trees that sprang up all around them, and suddenly felt overwhelmed. She may know some stuff about parts of the mind or the subconscious, but Bill was right. She’d never been in someone else’s mind before, and he, apparently, had. What chance did they have?

She felt herself slipping from the confidence she’d had moments before, but luckily Dipper chimed in and pulled her back up.

“Maybe we’re in one of his dreams?”

Mabel frowned. “Maybe. . . But then, where is Robbie? Or the other dream characters?” Her frown deepened. “And I’m pretty sure Robbie wouldn’t be dreaming yet, if he only fell asleep a little while before we came. It takes a while to get to dreaming after you fall asleep.”

“Okay, then, where do _you_ think we are?”

Mabel opened her mouth to reply, but she was cut off by a shout.

“ _There_ you are!”

They all turned to see Robbie storming up to them.

“Robbie!” Wendy said, running for him. “Finally! Are you in on these kids’ prank? Look what they did to me!” She gestured dramatically to the hole in her stomach.

Robbie glared at her, then looked past her to glare at the twins. “What do you three think you’re doing in here?” he demanded.

Mabel and Dipper shared a look. Robbie wasn’t acting like himself at all: his tone, his body language, even his posture was different. Some kind of hoax from Bill?

“Are you. . . the real Robbie?” Dipper asked.

“Of course I am!” Robbie snapped, moving around Wendy to stare Dipper down. “Do you have any idea how much panic you’re causing by being here? My mind is not open to visitors! All my workers are panicking up in HQ because you’re here!”

Wendy came up behind Robbie and draped herself on his arm. “Robbie. . . why are you talking like this?”

“Get off me,” Robbie said, pulling away from her. “Robbie may not realize he’s fed up with you, but I do.”

Wendy’s face was blank with confusion.

“So you’re _not_ Robbie?” Mabel asked.

“I _am_ , I’m just—” Robbie stopped, and sighed. “I’m the representation of my—of _Robbie’s_ —subconscious. I run things down here, and _you_ need to leave.”

Mabel blinked as she processed this. Alright. Subconscious version of Robbie, angry about them being in his head. She could handle that.

“We’re sorry—um—Robbie, but we’re actually here to help you. There’s this demon—”

“I’m completely aware of that,” Robbie snapped. “We’re handling it. You’ll just get in the way.”

Mabel remembered saying something similar to Wendy just a minute before. Oh, the irony.

In the small space of quiet, Dipper piped up. “If you’re Robbie’s subconscious, does that make you the _Robconscious_?”

Everybody stared at him. He spread his hands a bit like he was asking for laughs.

Mabel couldn’t help it: she snickered. Especially when she saw “the Robconscious’s” face, which was _not_ amused.

“Yes, very funny,” the Robconscious said. Mabel couldn’t think of him as anything else now. “So are you going to get out of my head, or. . . ?”

“How come you’re so different from normal Robbie?” Dipper asked, ignoring the question.

The Robconscious sighed. “There isn’t _normal Robbie_ , I’m—never mind. The subconscious is often far different from the conscious mind, especially in such a great pretender as myself.”

“Pretender?” Wendy cut in, her voice quiet but strong.

The Robconscious looked at her and, for the first time, softened a bit, looking more like the Robbie Mabel knew. “Not that kind of pretending, Wen, just. . . acting chill even when I don’t feel like it. I don’t pretend about how I feel about you.” As soon as he said it, he scowled. “See? There I go again. I don’t _want_ to love you, you know.”

Wendy actually smiled. “So you’ve said.”

Mabel didn’t understand. The Robconscious just made everything _better_ by saying that?

Whatever. They had to stop standing around.

“Robbie,” Mabel said, “where in your mind are we?”

The Robconscious turned his scowl on her. “No. I’m not giving you any information. You’re getting out of here.”

Mabel shied away under his gaze. Robbie had never looked at her like that before.

No. She forced herself to take a breath. She could do this.

“Well,” she said, standing up a little straighter, “I don’t know how to leave. So until we force that demon out of your mind, I’m pretty sure we’re stuck here. So you may as well let us help you.”

The Robconscious stared at her. Then his glare lessened, and Mabel thought she saw the hint of a smile on his face. “You’re braver here in the mindscape, aren’t you?”

Mabel flushed.

“Fine,” Robbie said, “but _only_ because you’re another foreign object. You might be able to push this dream demon out and get out yourselves along the way.

“Thank you!” Dipper said, grinning. “We won’t let you down, Robcon—Robbie!”

The Robconscious rolled his eyes, but smiled. “Something makes me believe you.”

He took a deep breath. “Alright. We’re in memory right now, but we’re really deep. See all these trees?”

Mabel glanced up at the gnarled branches overhead.

“These are memories that have got distorted with age. I’d say. . . .” He squinted at the trees around them. “I’d say we’re at about five years old. That demon is going to be somewhere a lot more recent if it’s information he wants.” He looked down at Mabel. “Do you happen to know what he wants?”

Mabel frowned and thought back to what they’d overheard. “Information for sure,” she said. “Um. . . .” She closed her eyes and thought. She was really, really good at remembering images: she could remember the way Pacifica’s leering face glowed in Bill’s yellow light. But what did she _say_ to him?

“The deed!” Dipper suddenly cut in. “Something about the deed to the Mystery Museum. And a safe. She wants the code to a safe.”

The Robconscious looked troubled at this. “I don’t know anything about the deed or the safe the deed is in. And I’m the subconscious; I know everything that comes through my head. Ford never entrusted me with that information. Why would he? I’m a teenager, and Melody is Ford’s fall girl. She probably knows.”

“Then why. . . Why wouldn’t Pacifica send Bill after Melody, if you don’t know anything?”

The Robconscious shrugged. “Maybe she thought I did. Look, we better catch up to that demon fast, because once he finds out I don’t know anything, who knows what he’ll do.”

“Right,” Mabel said, nodding. “How do we catch up to him?”

The Robconscious turned and pointed into the tangled mess of greyscale trees.

“Through there.”


	7. Chapter 7

The only light in the small clearing was the purple glow coming from Pacifica’s amulet. Gideon didn’t have his amulet activated; he was sitting sulkily against the cliff face. She still found it hilarious how Bill had treated the stuck-up Northwest. Gideon could use a beat-down every once in a while.

She wondered if she should clean up the sacrifice. She looked down at it, then up at the pine boughs above. Well, there _was_ a way to clean up without getting dirty herself.

Pacifica levitated the money out of the sacrificial pile—a little more money never hurt, and Stanford probably wouldn’t want it back with the blood on it, anyway—and put it to the side along with the candles. The gloves, the axo-whatever, and the spray-painted Cipher Wheel stayed. Pacifica stepped away, cresting the small hill to get out of the way.

“Hey wait,” Gideon said, standing up and following after her. “Where are you going?”

The tree branches above him glowed purple and then shook, dumping the snow on their boughs directly on Gideon’s head.

He cried out, but it was too late. The snow hit him full-on, bouncing off his head and coating his arms. He spluttered, pushing it off of himself, while Pacifica shook with laughter.

“ _Paz!_ ” Gideon yelled. “What was that for?”

It took Pacifica a moment to catch her breath. “You—just happened—to be there—at the right time!”

Gideon brushed the rest of the snow off of him and stomped towards her.

“Wait!” Pacifica called. “Make sure the snow covers the sacrifice. That’s why I brought it down in the first place. So even if someone finds it in the spring, it’ll be unrecognizable.”

Gideon rolled his eyes, but used his feet and his amulet to smooth the snow over the area. Pacifica nodded in satisfaction. It looked like they hadn’t even been here.

Gideon tromped up the hill to Pacifica. “You do realize,” he said, “that Bill probably won’t find anything.”

Pacifica had considered it; using one of Stanford’s employees wasn’t the most fool-proof of plans. “I have a Plan B,” she replied.

Gideon raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”

“Take the deed by force, of course. I’m going to give Bill another half hour or so and then go kidnap Stanford and force him to hand his property over to me. And you can get information about his Journals.”

She had expected Gideon to at least be excited, if not fall to his knees praising her for her genius. But instead, he only sighed. “Have fun with that.”

Then he started walking away.

“Wait a minute,” Pacifica said, following him, “don’t you want to torture Stanford?”

“No,” Gideon said flatly.

Huh. He must be having a bad day.

“Alright, fine,” Pacifica said. “I’ll have all the fun. I’ll put in a word about those Journals if you want.”

“No,” Gideon repeated, this time immediately. “Get the property, and then I’ll search for the Journal. I don’t want Stanford to know I’m on his trail. He’s very secretive about his work.”

Pacifica shrugged in agreement.

Gideon turned to leave again, but then turned back. “Pacifica. . . .”

“What?”

“Stanford isn’t some. . . townsperson,” he said. “He’s an experience paranormal researcher, and he might very well be able to hold himself against you.”

The nerve of him! Pacifica drew herself up to her full height. “Stanford Pines is a sorry old man who will have no choice but to bend to my will,” she declared. “And if you’re not going to join me in ensuring that, then don’t make comments about it.

Gideon sighed, as if he’d expected this reaction. “Alright. If you’re confident about it.”

And he left before Pacifica could say anything else.

“Contact me when I can come search for the Journal,” he called over his shoulder.

Pacifica waited until he was gone before indulging herself: she made a frustrated noise and stomped her foot in the snow.

 _Partners_ indeed.

~~~~~

“Are you sure you don’t have mind powers that can get us through this faster?” Dipper asked as he stepped awkwardly over a gigantic tree root.

“No,” the Robconscious replied. “Not in memory like this.”

“But,” Mabel cut in as she side-stepped around a low branch, “isn’t this whole area a mental projection in the first place? A metaphysical representation of your memories?”

“Yes,” the Robconscious said, “and I do have some ‘mind powers’ as Dipper put it, but the four of us are _also_ metaphysical representations. As long as I’m projecting a form like this, and as long as you’re a foreign object in this mind, you have to follow the physical laws you’re used to.”

Mabel frowned. That didn’t make very much sense. “But that’s not how dreams work.”

“This isn’t a dream. If you _recall_ , you’re _invading_ my mind.”

“Hey, Bill invaded your mind,” Dipper said. “We just followed him.”

The Robconscious sighed, but didn’t say anything. Mabel glanced over at Wendy, who was unnaturally quiet as she trudged through the tangled forest. The hole in her abdomen was still there, showing the area behind her.

The forest of memories was certainly a peculiar place. Huge trunks, as wide as cars, sprung up from gnarled roots that broke up the forest floor below, making every step treacherous. Branches stuck out at every angle, from any area on the trunk, but the biggest concentration was higher up: every tree had huge canopies of branches that knotted together to create an eerie ceiling above. There were no leaves to be seen.

Though the trees and forest floor were all in greyscale, there were brightly colored patches of air that hung off branches, hovered over roots, or fastened themselves to the tree trunk. These, when one looked closer, were memories, and _they_ were the leaves and foliage of the forest.

At first, Dipper and Mabel had stopped and gawked at every memory they had passed. They were bright and vivid, with sounds you could hear if you leaned in, depicting a young Robbie running through the forest, playing with other kids that looked like his siblings, and throwing things and making faces at a young Wendy. Before long, the Robconscious had given them an irritable look and told them to focus on the task at hand.

As they walked, the forest got less and less dense, and the Robbie in the memories got older and older. Mabel glanced at a memory that was draped over a branch, like a TV screen made of mercury. In it, a Robbie that was maybe twelve-years-old was riding a skateboard.

“If you’ll notice,” the Robconscious said, “my memories have gotten a lot more orderly now that we’re in my tween years.”

“Yeah, they used to look like Salvador Dali clocks,” Mabel said absently as she stepped over a tree root.

She quickly became aware of Robbie and Wendy staring at her, and her face turned red. “Never mind,” she mumbled.

Funny how walking quietly through an eerie forest for twenty minutes could diminish one’s confidence.

The walk—well, walk was a mild term for the constant ducking and side-stepping involved—went on for another five minutes or so in awkward silence. There was still a sound of wind, like it was whistling through the leaves above, but there were no leaves for it to whistle through. It was unnatural, but background noise, and Mabel was used to it by now.

The Robconscious suddenly stopped. “He’s up ahead.”

Their awkward procession stumbled to a halt. “Bill?” Dipper asked.

The Robconscious nodded. “Right now we’re in my memories of about six months ago. Bill is about ten yards ahead of us, searching through my memories of three months ago.” He scowled as he said it, as if even mentioning Bill’s invasion of privacy made him angry.

“How do you know?” Mabel blurted. A half second after it had come out of her mouth, she knew the answer to her question. It was his mind, after all. “Never mind,” she repeated, wondering why she was acting like an idiot after that burst of confidence earlier. Good things could only last so long, she supposed.

The Robconscious let her question slide. “We can’t just go barging in all together. I would just go, but he might be able to sense my attention easily, since it’s my head. Dipper, will you come with me?”

Dipper looked surprised for a second, but then nodded. “Sure. What exactly would we be doing?”

“Spying,” the Robconscious replied. “Checking to see where the demon is at, if he looks frustrated at all, that kind of thing. Mabel and Wen, you guys stay here—out of sight, just in case.” Then he frowned. “Will you two be okay together?”

Mabel bit her lip, but to her surprise, Wendy answered him. “Sure we will,” she said, not sounding happy, but not sarcastic either.

Mabel would rather _not_ be left alone with Wendy, but the older teen seemed to be fine with it. Huh. Maybe Mabel hadn’t been the only one to be strangely affected by this trip.

“Alright then,” the Robconscious said. “Dipper, can you be stealthy?”

“Only when he really wants to be,” Mabel answered for her twin.

“I want to be!” Dipper protested, a bit too loud. He covered his mouth. “I mean, yes,” he said quietly.

The Robconscious smiled. “I trust you, man. Let’s go.”

And with that, Dipper and Robbie slipped away, and Mabel was left alone with Wendy.

Mabel tried to look preoccupied by studying a memory of Robbie at his driving test. Maybe they could just sit here in awkward silence the whole time and not—

“You know what’s funny?” Wendy asked.

Mabel cringed a bit at the sound of her voice. She looked up sheepishly at Wendy, but the teen was looking off in the distance.

“It’s funny,” she continued, “that you think your little thing for my boyfriend isn’t obvious.”

Her tone said it wasn’t funny at all.

Mabel stared, unsure how to respond. I-it was obvious?

Now Wendy turned to look at Mabel, and the girl had to fight to keep her gaze. “What do you think you’re trying to pull?”

 _Don’t stutter don’t stutter don’t stutter._ “I-I don’t know what you—”

“Well, let’s take a look,” Wendy said, menace in her voice. “You and your dorky twin brother think you can be with the big kids, so you convince Robbie to bring you on our camping trip.”

“That’s not—” 

“Once you manage that, you sabotage the whole thing. You run off, making us all go searching for you, maybe just so you can feel special when Robbie is worried about you. And once you don’t get enough attention for _that_ , you pull some kind of prank or black magic or _whatever_ it was to go _inside Robbie’s head_. What are you looking for? Proof that he _loves_ you?”

“Wh-what? H-how—?”

“Anyone can see it in your eyes, _kid_. Those are the eyes of someone who thinks they know what love is, thinks they have any chance with a teenager when they’re—just—a—kid.” She jabbed a finger at Mabel’s chest with the last four words, backing the younger girl up against a tree.

“I-I don’t think I have a chance with anyone! I’m t-trying to _help_ Robbie!”

“Help him what? Realize he secretly hates me and loves you? Me, his _girlfriend_?”

Mabel didn’t understand. She had a crush on Robbie, sure, but she hadn’t done anything about it! What was making Wendy think all of this?

“Oh, look.”

Mabel followed Wendy’s gaze to a memory nearby. It was plastered on a nearby tree trunk, slightly bigger than the others.

In it, Wendy and Robbie were kissing.

“Our first kiss,” Wendy said, the fondness in her voice warped by venom.

Mabel looked away.

“That’s right,” Wendy said, leaning over Mabel. “You can’t ever hope to have that. Not with Robbie, not with anymore. Because _you_ are just a dumb, little _kid_.”

Tears were in Mabel’s eyes before she could force them down.

Wendy crouched down slowly until her eyes were level with Mabel’s. Then she spoke in a near whisper.

“Run away.”

So Mabel did.


	8. Chapter 8

Dipper was a ninja.

That thought helped him as he crept through the undergrowth beside Robbie—or, heh, the Robconscious. Best pun he’d ever made.

Ninja. Right. He was a ninja, and ninjas were silent. Bill would never see them coming.

“ _There he is_ ,” the Robconscious breathed.

Dipper stopped, peering around a tree trunk. A few feet away, studying a tree trunk and its memories, was Bill. The yellow glow of the demon threw an eerie light around him.

“You’re _positive_ you don’t know anything?” Dipper whispered back, trying very hard to be quiet.

The Robconscious shushed him gently, but shook his head. “Nothing.”

“This is the most **ridiculous** memory bank I’ve ever **been** in,” Bill said. His sudden, loud voice startled Dipper after all the quiet. He was just talking to himself, right? He hadn’t heard them?

But Bill didn’t have anything else to say; he simply drifted from one memory to the next.

Dipper and the Robconscious watched in silence for a while, Dipper trying with all his might not to squirm. It was admittedly easier in this dream body thingy, but not _that_ much easier.

Minutes later, or maybe hours, Dipper heard the sound of something hitting together and a muffled curse. He whirled around, but the Robconscious pushed him down. After a moment of his head in the dirt, Dipper realized Bill might be looking that way. Didn’t make the dirt in his mouth taste any better, though.

The Robconscious let Dipper back up. “What is she doing?” he hissed, looking back at the direction of the sound. Dipper took the opportunity to glance at Bill. The demon was still studying memories, looking none the wiser.

Suddenly, the Robconscious vanished.

Dipper jumped away, colliding with a tree branch that rammed into his back. “ _Ow!_ ” he exclaimed. Then he covered his mouth.

“Dipper?” Wendy was coming from around a tree. “Where’s Robbie?”

“I dunno—he just— _shh!_ ”

But it was too late.

“Oh, **there** you are,” came Bill’s voice. “I was **wondering** when you’d catch up with me.”

Dipper flattened himself against the tree behind him, and tried to pull Wendy away, but she snatched her arm away with a glare.

Bill floated around the bend, eye level with Dipper. “ **Hi** there, **Shooting Star**!” he said to Dipper. Why was he calling him that?

“Hey, you dumb triangle, didn’t anyone ever teach you to mind your own business?” Dipper shot back. It wasn’t the best comeback, but maybe it’d be effective.

“ **Nope**!” Bill replied. “ **Never**. Hey, wanna know something **funny**?”

He didn’t wait for Dipper or Wendy to respond. “ **Turns out** that Robbie doesn’t even **know** the information I **need**! Now, I could’ve **guessed** that. But you know **what**?”

Dipper thought he might.

“Even though I **figured** my little **trip** into Robbie’s mind would be **futile** , I’m not going to let it be **completely** useless.”

The trees around them lit on fire.

Dipper started, colliding with Wendy as he shied back from the fire. She grabbed his arm. Huh. Maybe the gravity of their situation was _finally_ getting through her head.

“ **So** ,” Bill said, a twisted smile in his voice, his eye wide. As he spoke, he grew larger and larger until his yellow glow was near blinding.

“ **Who** wants to have some **fun**?”

~~~~~

Mabel climbed the first tree she could, scrambling up the branches with no heed to the twigs that snagged against her face and clothes. She could hear memories playing as she passed them, and it seemed every single one had Robbie, in his relaxed, smooth voice, saying Wendy’s name.

_Wendy. Wendy. Wendy._

Mabel sat herself on a thick branch and let herself cry into her hands. All around, the vibrant memories reminded her of her pain.

_Wendy. Wendy. Wendy._

“Mabel?”

Her breath caught in her throat, and she stifled the sob that was trying to burst through. No. . . .

She looked down. Yep. Robbie was at the base of the tree.

“Can I come up?”

As in, climb up the tree? Sit next to her? That sounded like an awful idea, but Mabel didn’t know how to say no, so she just sat there, putting her head back in her hands and turning away.

Before long she could hear the tree creak as Robbie put his weight on it, climbing up to her. She forced herself to stay still, but once his hand touched the branch she was on she reacted instinctively, getting up and scrambling higher into the tree’s branches.

“Mabel, wait,” Robbie called, following her. She found another branch, this one on the other side of the tree, and sat down again, turning away from him.

It didn’t take long for Robbie to catch up to her. This time, she didn’t run away. She couldn’t bring herself to. She didn’t want him there, she didn’t want him to see her like this. And yet. . . she wanted him close to her.

_He doesn’t hate me, right? Wendy has to be wrong._

She kept her face buried in her sleeve as Robbie settled next to her.

“Hey,” he said softly. “I saw what happened back there.”

Mabel started. “Y-you did?” She peeked up at him through her fingers.

He nodded. “Well, afterwards. Dipper and I heard Wendy coming, and I figured something had happened. I guess I was right.”

So this was the Robconscious. Why did Mabel think he wasn’t? Why was she disappointed?

“I’m sorry Wendy said all that,” Robbie continued, his voice gentle. “She’s wrong.”

“A-about what?” Her throat felt tight, but she didn’t want to assume anything.

“About you being just a kid,” Robbie replied. “You’re not. I’ve seen some crazy things in my life, but you and your brother are especially impressive. I mean, I know I was angry at you for following Bill into my head, but, hey, the fact that you could in the first place. . . that’s pretty cool, man.”

“I-it’s not me,” Mabel said. “It’s the—”

But Robbie was shaking his head. “It is you. My conscious mind may be unaware, but I’ve picked up on some interesting things since you’ve showed up. Your enthusiasm for the supernatural is pretty sweet.”

 _I’ve picked up on some things._ Oh no. . . .

“And I also can see how you feel about me.”

Mabel moaned loudly and hid her face with her hands again.

Robbie laughed quietly. “It’s okay, Mabel.”

“You’ve known the whole time,” was the muffled reply.

“Hey,” Robbie said, “remember, I’m the subconscious. I figured it out, easy, but my conscious mind can be. . . well, pretty dense, sometimes.”

Mabel looked up. “You mean you don’t know? W-when you’re awake?”

Robbie shrugged. “That’s one way to put it. And you know what? Even if I did know, I’d be okay with it.” He smiled at her, and though she wanted to look away, she somehow held his gaze. Even managed to smile back a little.

“Although,” he continued, “I don’t think I could ever actually, you know. . . .”

Mabel moaned again, this time throwing her head back. “ _No!_ ” she exclaimed. “That’s not it at all! Dipper and Wendy and everyone thinks I wanna be your girlfriend, but I _don’t_!” The steam of her outburst left as quickly as it had come, and she shrunk back. “C-can’t I just have a crush on someone without having to— _do_ something about it?”

Robbie laughed. It was a good sound. “Of course you can.” He smiled again, and this time, Mabel smiled back easily.

“Thanks,” she whispered.

“No problem. You’re my friend, dude. I’ll keep hanging out with you and your brother, and you can crush on me as hard as you want. I swear I won’t notice. Deal?”

Mabel couldn’t help it: she laughed. “Deal.”

They grinned at each other for a moment, but then the smile vanished from Robbie’s eyes.

“What?” Mabel asked.

“Dipper and Wendy,” Robbie said. “Bill is attacking them.”

Mabel started, bracing her hands on the tree branch and sitting up straight. “W-we have to help them!”

“Wait, Mabel,” Robbie said.

“I can’t come with you.”

Mabel stared at him. “Why. . . why not?”

“You, Dipper, Wendy, and Bill are all foreign objects in my mind. If you fight each other, you’ll hopefully all be forced out. If I join in, I could upset that balance. Plus I have to make sure the most important parts of my mind are defended, just in case. So I can’t come with you. But. . . .”

He took a deep breath.

“Remember earlier how I said you have to follow physical laws in here?”

Mabel nodded.

“I was lying. I didn’t want to give you the knowledge to harness the power of the mind, not when you were in mine. But Bill does have that knowledge, so I’m going to trust you.”

Mabel just stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

“You can do anything in here,” Robbie said, “anything you have the imagination and concentration for. Bill has all sorts of power over the mind; I can feel it in—” he winced.

“What?”

“We don’t have much time. He’s really hitting Dipper and Wendy hard.”

“W-we—we have to—”

“Just a second. If you concentrate, you’ll be able to feel where they are. I may not be able to come, but. . . .” He met her eyes. “I trust you.”

Her heart fluttered.

Robbie continued, “Do you think you can unlock the powers of the mind, Mabel?”

It took her only a moment to process what he was saying. Then she nodded firmly. She closed her eyes and concentrated, willing her body to comply, to remember the state she could occasionally reach in dreams.

“ _Woah_ , dude,” Robbie said.

Mabel opened her eyes. “D-did it work?” She couldn’t feel anything. She looked over her shoulder, craning her neck around.

There were giant bird wings on her back.

“Yes!” she crowed, grinning back at Robbie. He looked suitably impressed.

“How’d you manage that?”

She felt her cheeks heat up a bit. “Oh, I just. . . have a lot of flying dreams.”

“It’s sweet, man! You look like you’re ready to go take on a demon with those.”

Right. The demon.

She nodded and took a deep breath. “Yep. I’m ready.”

“Good luck. Hope to see you consciously soon, huh?” He raised a fist for a fist-bump. “Top shelf.”

“Top shelf.” As soon as Mabel’s fist touched his, he vanished into a small puff of white smoke.

Mabel gave herself only a heartbeat to watch the space where Robbie had been. Then, she focused on her brother, casting her thoughts out to find him, holding an image of his face in her head.

_Where are you, Dipper?_

It didn’t take long before his presence hit her hard. He was no longer in the memory forest, but he was getting attacked by Bill, just like Robbie said. Mabel could feel her brother in pain.

_Crap crap crap crap!_

Mabel stood up on the tree branch and—hoping this would work—flung herself off into the forest. Not only did her new wings catch the air, but she passed straight through the tree branches, just as she’d hoped. Strangely, she couldn’t feel her wings—just see them, as they flapped in and out of her periphery. But it was always like that in her flying dreams, so she didn’t put much thought into it.

Instead, she angled herself upward, towards her brother.

_I’m coming, Dipper._


	9. Chapter 9

Stanford Pines sat at his table, rubbing his temples with hard fingers. Night had fallen, and he was still no closer to figuring out this burglary.

If the thief had only stolen money, he might not be so worried. He could shut down the shop for a few days, put up some nasty traps he had left over from his adventuring days. But the thief seemed to have only taken the money as an afterthought.

They stole his axolotl.

He didn’t understand why on earth someone would want to steal his axolotl. Criminy, he didn’t even know what _he_ wanted with the creature. It just seemed fascinating, and it kept him company while he worked, swimming around with its happy little face. On top of that, it was incredible that he found one in the first place, as axolotls weren’t indigenous to the Oregon biome.

Then again, neither were fairies, ghouls, or monsters.

A knock at the door startled Ford out of his thoughts. He moaned softly as he stood, his old bones creaking. Even if he _wanted_ to have the adventures like he did as a young man, he’d probably hurt himself in this aged body.

Still grumbling, he made his way to the door and pulled it open.

“Hello there, Stanford,” said Pacifica Pleasure, flashing him a dazzling, youthful smile. “How is your evening?”

Stanford stared down at her, grunting in response. “What are you doing here?”

The girl’s over-exaggerated smile turned to an over-exaggerated frown. “Now, at least I pretended to be polite, Mr. Pines.”

“What?” Ford asked. Something about this was seriously wrong.

A strange purple glow filled the room, and with a start, Ford realized it was coming from the pendant on Pacifica’s collar. And yet. . . it also seemed to be surrounding him.

And then he discovered he couldn’t move.

Pacifica’s smile returned, and in her sickly sweet voice, she said, “You’re coming with me, Stanford.”

A sense of dread filled Ford’s body.

“Do try to struggle,” Pacifica continued. Were her _eyes_ glowing purple as well?

“It will be very entertaining to watch.”

~~~~~

Dipper was no longer in the memory forest. He and Wendy stood on a large stone slab that appeared to be suspended in space. The stars around them were probably beautiful, but Dipper didn’t have an eye for them. After all, half of what he could see was filled by a giant, demonic triangle.

Bill was huge. He loomed over his victims, a low, multi-layered laugh cutting through the air.

“What are your **worst nightmares**?” he asked Dipper and Wendy. “Can’t have a **party** without **those**.”

A small part of Dipper hoped Bill wouldn’t figure it out if he just kept quiet. The rest of him knew that was a vain hope.

“ **Ah,** I see.” Bill turned his slitted pupil on Wendy, and the whites of his eye turned to a spotlight. She flinched.

Bill snapped his gargantuan fingers.

In smalls puffs of blue smoke, five figures appeared around Wendy. Dipper instantly picked out Robbie, meaning the other four had to be the rest of his squad. They looked so _real_ , and yet, as they circled Wendy, their movements were slightly jerky, leaving small tendrils of mist behind them.

“Guys?” Wendy asked carefully. They advanced on her, and she shrank back a little.

“We can see through your façade,” one of them said, a girl with dark skin.

“You’re pathetic,” said another.

“You’re fake and unoriginal,” added a third.

Dipper had to do something! “Wendy,” he called, “they’re not real! It’s okay!”

But Wendy didn’t seem to hear him. The fake Robbie had detached from the crowd, stepping forward and meeting Wendy’s eyes.

“I never loved you,” he said, hatred filling his voice.

Dipper’s heart skipped a beat, and Wendy sank slowly to her knees.

Dipper immediately started after her, but his muscles seized up.

“Don’t think I’ve **forgotten** you, **Shooting Star** ,” said Bill, his full attention on Dipper now. “I have some **friends** for you too.”

He snapped his fingers again, and Dipper stepped back as more blue mist began to form. Somehow he knew who it was going to be before they appeared.

Sure enough: Norma, Pacifica, and Amanda were all standing before them, their beautiful faces marred by twisted expressions. Dipper easily looked past Pacifica, but that look on Amanda’s face. . . He could hardly breathe.

He turned and dashed away from them, hoping they couldn’t move very fast. But a wall of flames circled the platform, obstructing his path. Plus he would’ve fallen off into space if he’d run off the platform anyway.

With a faint _zipping_ noise, the ghostly (but disturbingly realistic) versions of his ex-girlfriends had disappeared and reappeared around him, closing in on him just like Wendy’s friends.

“I only dated you to spy on your family,” Norma whispered.

“You’re so annoying, only a psycho like me could love you,” Pacifica added.

 _No_. No, he couldn’t listen to them!

Amanda stepped forward, malice in her eyes.

“I only thought I loved you because I was scared.”

The words were a like a punch to the gut. Dipper stumbled back, trying so hard not to listen to them, trying to remember they weren’t real, but. . .

What if they were right?

“ _Dipper!_ ”

Mabel! Dipper’s mind frantically latched onto her voice, drawing it inside, using it to force out the voices of the shadows around him. Then he turned toward her.

There she was, _flying_ above the platform, of all things, large wings sweeping back and forth to keep her aloft. The wings were grey on the underside, but as they flapped, Dipper could see feathers that seemed to refract colorful light around his sister.

“Mabel!” Dipper called back, relieved. “You look awesome!”

Mabel grinned. “Thanks, bro! Turns out, you can do _anything_ in here, if you can imagine it!” Her voice echoed around them, much like Bill’s, but only with one layer.

“ **What**?” Bill asked, staring at Mabel from across the platform. “She’s **lying**! Only **I** have power in the **mindscape**!”

“Try it!” Mabel said to Dipper, her wings throwing rainbows of light onto the platform.

Dipper looked around at the shades of his ex-girlfriends, their faces turned to scowls. “You’re _not real_!” he shouted at them. “Dipper Ninja _Kick_!”

He hit them all with a perfect roundhouse kick, and they burst into mist upon contact with his foot. He didn’t even fall on his butt, like he usually did when trying ninja moves! This was _awesome_!

“Go Dipper!” Mabel yelled. She raised her hands towards Bill and bucked back as beams of dark blue light shot from her palms, hitting Bill straight in the eye.

“ **Ow**!” Bill shrieked, cover his face. “Alright, **fine**. Want to get **violent** , do we?”

Mabel folded her wings and dropped, Bill’s red lasers passing right through the spot she had once been.

She landed on the platform in a roll, popping back up and running over to Dipper. Dipper grinned at her, but then something caught his eye.

Wendy was on the other side of the platform, still getting bullied by the shades of her friends. She was curled up on the ground, and they were jeering and kicking at her.

Dipper ran over. “Wendy! Wendy, you can stop them! They’re not real!”

There was no response.

“Dipper Ninja Kick!” he shouted, kicking at a nearby boy with purple streaks in his hair.

His foot passed right through, and the boy didn’t even react.

“Wendy, only you can make them disappear! C’mon! You can do it!”

“Dipper!” Mabel called. “Leave her, Dipper, she isn’t fighting them. We just have to get her out of here.”

Dipper looked from Mabel to Wendy and back to Mabel. Okay.

He ran back to Mabel, throwing ninja stars at Bill as he went. The stars sliced holes through Bill’s yellow form, spinning off into space. Bill yelled with each impact, but he looked more angry than in pain.

“Mabel, this is the coolest thing ever,” Dipper whispered when he was close enough to her.

“Agreed,” she whispered back. Then she raised her voice and shouted, “Alright, Bill! This is over! Dipper, help me imagine a portal out of Robbie’s mind.”

“Right!” Dipper concentrated, envisioning a swirling purple portal that appeared underneath Bill.

The demon flailed, and it looked like they were going to defeat him.

“ **ENOUGH**!”

With a flash, everything disappeared. There was nothing but a void of white surrounding Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, and Bill. The shades had disappeared, as had Mabel’s wings. The holes in Bill’s shape had mended.

And Dipper couldn’t move. He could only float there under Bill’s gaze.

“I’m **impressed** ,” Bill said. “You guys are more **clever** than you look. I **thought** you would just get in my **way** , but maybe you could be of **help** to me later.”

Dipper and Mabel exchanged looks of confusion.

“ **BUT KNOW THIS** ,” Bill’s voice boomed, “your **world** is not what it **seems**. A **day** will come when everything you **care** about will **change**. Until **then** , I’ll be **watching you.** ”

Mabel shivered in Dipper’s periphery.

“ ** _I’ll be  w a t c h i n g  you. . . ._** ”

His yellow aura grew brighter and brighter until it filled Dipper’s vision.

And then everything faded to black.


	10. Chapter 10

Mabel’s eyes snapped opened, but wouldn’t focus for a few seconds. When they did, and she had sat up, she could see Dipper across from her, grinning like an idiot, and Wendy to the side, frowning like a sad clown. Mabel pointedly decided to focus on Dipper.

“That. Was. _Awesome_ ,” Dipper said, sitting up. “Did you see me? I was a ninja! And we did it, we got Bill out of Robbie’s mind!”

“And ourselves, by the looks of it,” Mabel said, looking around the yurt. Robbie was still asleep on his camp chair. Mabel’s stomach flopped when she saw him. Would he really not remember what they had talked about?

Dipper looked over at Wendy, and his grin dropped. “Hey,” he said, “I’m sorry about what happened. What they said wasn’t true.”

She stared at him, then glared at him, then got up and stomped out of the yurt.

Mabel watched her go. “Well, you get points for trying.” Inside, though, her stomach turned over again. She had to talk to Wendy, didn’t she.

With a sudden gasp, Robbie bolted awake. Mabel jumped at the noise, looking up at him with wide eyes.

He blinked rapidly, then leaned forward onto his elbows, running a hand through his hair. “I fell asleep?” he asked out loud.

Then he seemed to notice the twins. “Oh, hey, there you guys are!”

Mabel smiled sheepishly.

“Yep, here we are!” Dipper replied. “Wendy found us. Sorry it took us so long to get back; we got kinda lost.”

“I was starting to worry, man,” Robbie said. “I probably shouldn’t have let you go off on your own.”

Mabel and Dipper shared a look. If they hadn’t gone off, they probably would never have known about Bill.

“I have no idea why I fell asleep, though,” Robbie continued, stretching his arms above his head. “I was worrying about you guys, and I didn’t feel tired.”

“It’s okay,” Mabel said, a bit too quickly.

Robbie glanced at her, then shrugged. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Wendy’s outside,” Dipper said. “The others might still be out looking for us.” His eyes met Mabel’s again, and she realized what he must be thinking: how long had they been in Robbie’s mind? Had no time at all passed in the real world?

Mabel saw the Journal in her periphery, still open to the page on Bill, and snatched it back into her jacket when Robbie wasn’t looking.

“I guess we should go find them all, then,” Robbie said, getting to his feet and stretching again. The twins followed suit, though the nervousness in Mabel’s stomach was a constant buzz now. She _really_ didn’t want to go looking for Wendy.

They poked their heads out of the yurt, and Dipper immediately pulled back in. “It’s _freezing_ out there!” Mabel could hear him say from inside.

“Dipper, c’mon,” she said, rolling her eyes.

He reappeared moments later with blankets, passing one to Mabel and wrapping another around himself. Oh. Smart.

“Hey, there you are, Robbie!” someone called. As Mabel stepped out onto the wooden walkway leading from the yurt, she saw the crowd of five teenagers, including Wendy, that was standing outside. With a shiver, she realized that all of the teenagers standing there had been in the group that was ridiculing Wendy back in Robbie’s mind. That must be why the redhead was standing a little ways away, arms folded tightly across her chest.

“Oh, good, you found the kids,” said a heavy-set girl with a pleasant smile.

“The eclipse is starting!” a blonde girl said.

“Oh, sweet!” Robbie said. “You kids ever seen an eclipse?”

“Mabel got up in the middle of the night to see one once,” Dipper said.

Mabel smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, it was pretty cool.”

“It’ll be about half an hour until it’s completely covered,” said a dark-skinned girl standing next to the blonde. “Then we party!”

The rest of the teens (and Dipper) cheered.

Mabel looked over at Wendy, who hadn’t joined in. Then she took a deep breath. She had to do this. It was now or never.

The things she was going to say ran through her head over and over again as she started determinedly towards Wendy. Her stomach was a knot; her chest a beehive of nervousness. Ohhhh she _hated_ confrontation like this.

Wendy saw her before long and turned away, moving further away from the group. Mabel followed her; this was actually better. Nobody could overhear them if they moved away.

Unfortunately, Wendy looked increasingly annoyed each time she looked over her shoulder.

“Wendy,” Mabel finally said. The word sent a fresh wave of nervousness through her.

Wendy turned around, glaring at her full force.

Mabel forced down the anger that wanted to surface. She took a deep breath.

“Wendy, you’re right. I do like Robbie. He’s. . . cute, and funny, and. . . .” She had to pause to breathe again, but this time it was shaky. “I like Robbie, but I don’t want him to know. I don’t want. . . him to like me back. It’s okay. It seems like. . . he likes you, and that’s—that’s okay. I’m—happy for you two.”

Wendy had stopped glaring so strongly, but she was still silent.

Mabel attempted a smile. “Although I think we’d all like to see you happy a bit more.”

Wendy’s trance broke, and she let out an indignant scoff. “How dare you!” she snapped. She looked like she wanted to say more, but then she simply turned and stomped off.

Mabel watched her go, but somehow didn’t feel angry or hurt. She was still nervous—she always took a while to calm down after conflict—but she also felt relieved. She had said what she had meant to say, and it hadn’t come out garbled. And somehow, Wendy’s reaction didn’t really matter.

Mabel took a moment to take some deep breaths, and then went back to rejoin the group.

“Found her!” Dipper called when he saw his twin. “Mabes, don’t go too far! We wanna be here for the party, right?”

Mabel stopped, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets. She had dropped the blanket that Dipper had given her, and he was holding it out. Only now that she was cooling down from her confrontation with Wendy did she realize just how cold she was.

She took the blanket, smiling, thinking about Dipper’s question. _Did_ she want to be here for the party, with all these teenagers?

Surprisingly, she found that she did.

“For sure,” she said to her twin with a grin. “But do we have to wait outside for the whole eclipse? I’m freezing.”

“Sibling Penguin Huddle!” Dipper declared, waddling up next to her and nearly knocking her over.

She laughed, pushing him away playfully, but wanting him near.

And as she laughed, the last of the tension in her chest went away.

~~~~~

An hour later, Mabel, Dipper, Robbie, and his friends were sitting around a campfire, telling stories and roasting s’mores. Their front sides were warm, hot even, from the fire, but their backs were frigidly cold. Thick blankets, wrapped around them like penguins, helped somewhat.

“Mabel’s turn, Mabel’s turn!” Dipper said. Robbie’s friends thought he was a _riot_. Nat and Lia, the girls that might be mistaken for twins if not for Nat’s bright blonde hair and Lee’s pretty dark skin, found him particularly funny. Tambry, the larger girl who seemed to agree with everything, smiled when Dipper talked. Thompson, the boy with the purple in his hair, just rolled his eyes—but smiled a bit.

Wendy had yet to smile.

“Mabel, tell us a spooky story,” Dipper said, prodding his twin with his elbow. She nudged him away.

“What? No, I don’t have any good stories.”

“Sure you do!” Dipper protested. “Mabel tells amazing stories,” he informed the group. “Tell us. . . ooh.”

He turned on a flashlight under his chin. “The story of the bunk bed that tried to kill you.”

He handed her the flashlight.

Bunk beds? She was supposed to scare teenagers with a story about bunk beds??

Or maybe. . . maybe it wasn’t about being scary. Maybe it was about being funny.

She switched on the flashlight.

“Once there was an innocent young girl,” she began in an ominous tone.

“And her awesome twin brother!” Dipper chipped in.

“Shh. This girl was small and ordinary, but little did she know, she was part of a big plan. A plan. . . to rid the world of children with killer bunk beds!”

Nat snorted. Mabel’s hand trembled a bit, but she steadied herself. _Funny, not serious. Be like Dipper._

“One day, the girl’s unsuspecting parents bought a bunk bed for her and her twin brother, not thinking their precious children were in any danger. But the moment they told the girl she would be sleeping on the top bunk, she knew.”

Mabel’s eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward.

“That very night, the bunk bed tried to kill her,” she said in the scariest tone she could muster.

“Yeah,” Dipper blurted out, “she rolled over and somehow fell off the bunk bed in the middle of the night and landed on the floor with this really big _thump_ and it totally woke me up and to this day Mabel never ever sleeps in bunk beds right Mabes?”

There was temporary silence, save the crackling of the fire.

Then everyone burst out laughing.

“Dipper,” Mabel tried to say through her laughter, “I was telling the story!”

“I got excited,” Dipper said sheepishly. But somehow Mabel got the feeling his interruption was calculated for maximum laughter. How _did_ he do it?

Oh well. He had helped her out, and they had told a funny story together. Right?

“You twins are a riot,” Robbie said, his grin illuminated by the fire. “Hey, who wants to see how many marshmallows Tambry can fit in her mouth?”

Everybody turned to Tambry.

“Tambry, Tambry, Tambry!” Lia started chanting. Everybody else joined in, until Tambry grabbed the marshmallow bag. She was tipping it over, about to dump them in her mouth, when—

“ _KIDS_!”

The voice was like a gust of wind that blew away any other noise. Tambry froze, the marshmallow bag suspended over her head.

Everyone turned toward the sound of the voice. A figure was lumbering towards them, its gait crooked. Mabel instinctively reached for Dipper’s arm.

“Kids! Mabel. . . Dipper. . . .”

“It’s a monster!” Dipper whispered.

But no. Mabel knew that voice.

“It’s. . . it’s Ford,” she said in surprise.

Ford made his way into the firelight, and everyone gasped. One of his eyes was swollen, and there were cuts on his face, and it looked like on his arms, too. His lab coat was torn in multiple places, and he walked with a limp.

“G-Grunkle Ford. . . .” Mabel stuttered.

“What happened to you?” Dipper finished.

Ford grimaced at them. “Pacifica Pleasure happened to me,” he said gravely. “I was unaware anyone that young knew how to torture people, but she does. She’s back at the Mystery Museum, ready to hurt any of us who try to come back.”

Mabel and Dipper looked at each other with wide eyes.

Ford stepped forward, wobbling a little, and Robbie jumped to his feet, running over to stabilize the old man. Ford hardly seemed to notice him; he was still looking at the twins. He took a shuddering breath.

“I fear we’re all in danger.”

 

**End of Episode Five**


End file.
